SecEd, the Guardian Teacher Network and Amnesty International have joined forces to run the Young
HumaSen Rights Reporter Of The Year competition.

It's easy to enter. Just visit Amnesty's website for more details.

Teachers can submit up to three entries per class. Individual pupils can also enter.

Do you or your pupils have a human rights story to tell – either from personal experience (eg bullying or what it is like to be a refugee) or an interpretation of a human rights news story?

There are four categories: Upper Primary, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary and Sixth Form.

Winners and runners-up will be invited to a prestigious expenses-paid awards ceremony at Amnesty’s headquarters. They will be allowed to take a teacher, a guardian and one friend each.

Closing date: 31 January 2012
Awards ceremony: 9 May 2012

Winning Entry from 2010 - Niketa Lee DaCosta-Salmon, 14, Harris Academy Purley
Sticks and Stones

Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you. This is something that was constantly recited in my mind as I tried to overcome the words flung across the bus, the tutor room and the playground. Bullying.

What is the first word that runs through your head when the verb is thrown at you. Maybe something that is repeated constantly in order to make someone feel bad about themselves, or maybe just something to pass someone else's time on a school day. The dictionary definition of bullying is, 'the act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something'. My definition in a nutshell was 'I don't want to wake up in the morning.'

Being a victim of bullying for 5 years left me scarred and vulnerable to the outside world. It was hard enough being in school everyday having to hang my head low, waiting for the next spear of abuse to hit my back, but even going to the corner shop for my mum, I felt that I had to hid myself away from the public, looking over my shoulder several times, expecting someone to comment on my face, the way my hair was done or the way I walked.

It was a continuous battle of the heart, mind and soul. My mind struggled with the fact that if I was to tell somebody then it would seem like I was a snitch. That would make things so much worse for me, whereas in my heart I just wanted to be free of all the verbal and physical abuse. In my soul, I longed for a friend who would stand up for me or maybe make me feel better about myself.

Bullying is something that happens world-wide and many young people as well as adults face this daily and don't know what to do about it or what to do with themselves. Bullying in itself is against human rights, everyone deserves the right to feel safe in the environment they are in whether school or home and no one should be given the chance to have that security taken away from them. No one should feel that they are being degraded in any way or form. We all have a right to live as a human and live the life we choose to. No one should be bullied; the world is a diverse place with millions of people of different race, sexes, talents etc. If we all respected each other more, the world would be more than a happy place.