When Colombian human rights activists Astrid Manrique and Yolima Quintero embarked on a consciousness-raising tour of the United States and Canada, in addition to big cities like Toronto and Vancouver one stop was non-negotiable - Hampton, New Brunswick, population 3,000.

Hampton is about as far from that troubled South American country as one can imagine. Nestled in the valley of the Kennebecasis River, about 30 minutes from Saint John, downtown is two blocks long and doesn't exhibit any of the multiculturalism that characterizes big Canadian cities.

But while Hampton may be a small town, it has developed a strong global conscience.

John Murphy is one important reason why, though he's quick to deflect credit and attention. A retired art teacher and Amnesty International activist, Murphy puts the finishing touches on an art installation he conceived with his successor, Jim Boyd.

Just steps inside the front entrance of Hampton High School, photos, a doll, a ball cap and cut-out question marks are assembled to evoke Colombia's disappeared. "The idea was, how can we visualize the disappeared?" Murphy says. "The whole idea of 'the disappeared' being a noun... people who have been taken with no trace."

Jim Boyd says the marriage of art and activism is a natural one, apart from being effective for drawing in young people. "Some people say it's not art unless you're trying to move people, to shift their way of thinking. It's been happening in art for hundreds of years, and I think it's an appropriate way to address things."

Hundreds of kids will pass by the display in the couple of days around the visit of Manrique and Quintero, members of the Association of the Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared (ASFADDES). When the Colombian human rights workers see the installation, they are quiet and emotional. During two successive talks in the school library, they tell students how it resembles the "galleries of memory" which members of ASFADDES set up during May's International Week of the Detained and Disappeared.

"We do [the galleries] in universities, schools, union offices or other public places. The wives, sisters, aunts, and mother of the disappeared set up tables with the belongings of our loved ones," says Manrique.

"Sometimes, all we have are old clothes that wouldn't have any value to most people. But to us, they are precious. And with these things, we claim our loved ones." Thousands of Colombians have been snatched from their homes without a trace.

Manrique's husband was disappeared in 1988, leaving her to raise their children alone. Quintero's brother and sister were taken in 1985. To this day, they do not know their whereabouts or fate.

As if they haven't suffered enough, both have been threatened in recent years - and have needed support from Amnesty International. Two of Quintero's colleagues in the Medillin office disappeared in 2000. This is part of a disturbing phenomenon: in Colombia, defenders of human rights are very likely to be victims of human rights violations. In the slippery post-September 2001 world, human rights activists have even been labeled "white-collar terrorists."

Manrique tells the stories of young people who have been targeted and disappeared for being involved in their communities in Colombia. In one case, she tells the student assembly, a young man's mother saw him being seized from the street near their home, and begged for him to be spared.

"That just about brought me to tears," says student Clare Lamont. She's already active with Amnesty International (AI), and says local activists will be energized by the visit of the ASFADDES activists. "Coming first-hand from them, that what we're doing can make a difference, it helps a lot to motivate."

Though Murphy retired in 2002, Hampton High School is still full of art projects he initiated to help students imagine the struggles of others. For example, a sculpture done in bas-relief illustrates the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Murals decorate the auditorium, testaments to annual "Fast Blasts," weekend-long sessions of fasting, art-making and fundraising to benefit a different cause each year: an AIDS hospice in South Africa, the reopening of schools in Afghanistan, street kids in Jakarta, Indonesia, a school building project in Guatemala. In 30 hours, the effort raises more than $3,000.

And it's not just students. A Hampton art project of a different sort is now in Colombia. The Hampton community AI group contributed a quilt to a project that saw 14 quilts made to symbolically protect human rights defenders.

Ida MacPherson stitched Hampton's quilt blocks together. She still works as a nurse, but activism - through AI and her church - has become a life's project for her and her husband, David, a retired electrician.

"We're a very small group," she recalls with a smile. "A lot of them are men and they didn't think this was the greatest project. But once they got into it, making blocks in all sorts of way - painting, cross-stitch, patchwork - they found it was quite nice and a good way of expressing their feelings."

The Hampton AI group has even been asked to take on a special "action file." While the students in the high school group still write letters about human rights issues all over the world, the community group is focused exclusively on trying to help protect members of ASFADDES. Along with 13 other groups around the world, Hamptonians write letters to political figures in Colombia and Canada asking for greater respect for the human rights of these activists.

So what makes this rural town a hotbed of human rights activism? What is that "something special in Hampton" as noted by Alex Neve, head of Amnesty International-Canada?

"They're dedicated, they're creative and they persevere," says Neve, who attributes some of the Hampton's remarkable "energy and activism" to "a special sense of responsibility and legacy" as the hometown of John Peters Humphrey, 1905 - 1995.

As the first director of the United Nations Division of Human Rights, Humphrey was asked by Eleanor Roosevelt, the Chair of the Human Rights Commission, to draft a bill of rights for all the world's people. That draft formed the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, enacted by the UN on December 12, 1948.

"[Humphrey] and his staff were directly involved," says Mark Perry, the head of social studies at Hampton High School. "They looked at the Declaration of the Rights of Man that came out of the French Revolution, they looked at the Magna Carta, they looked at constitutions from around the world."

Perry is a member of the John Peters Humphrey Foundation, a group that formed after Humphrey's widow wrote the town to ask that it do more to recognize his contributions to the world community. In the four years since, Perry has become something of a Humphrey scholar.

"The UN Secretary General at the time, Dag Hammarskjöld, and Humphrey did not see eye to eye," he says. "Hammarskjöld wanted to close down the human rights division, while Humphrey pushed for a High Commissioner of Human Rights." That office was finally created in 1993, two years before Humphrey's death, and almost thirty years after he left the UN.

"Big ideas do start in small places," says art teacher Jim Boyd. That's the message Hamptonians can take from the life and legacy of John Peters Humphrey, he adds.

A simple stone in the Hampton graveyard marks his final resting place. "You can't see it six or seven months of the year, because it's covered by leaves or snow," says Mark Perry. "By all accounts, he was a humble person." But Humphrey is now recognized as one of the architects of the global human rights system.

While the renaissance of interest in Humphrey has helped to keep energies up in Hampton, retired teacher John Murphy didn't actually known much about him when he undertook his first big international project with students. That followed a personal awakening to concerns for social justice and the global community.

Rotary International funded Murphy to go to South Africa in 1999. (Again, for a small town, the Rotary International chapter is very active. The high school almost always has an exchange student, and many Hampton students have had the chance to live abroad with the group's support.) He returned from Pretoria inspired to act, along with a request for soccer balls, bikes, toys and children's books. Classrooms of captive students in Hampton were more than willing to get involved.

"We did quite a big project called A Gift for Africa, and it involved eight different schools filling this huge 40-foot container... it was a huge logistical problem in lots of ways, but it was a real community effort," recalls Murphy. "I was greatly relieved to see the container finally drive away from the school on its way to South Africa. And as I stood there watching it go, a couple of kids came up to me and said, 'Well, what's next? What are we going to do next?'"

That was a second moment of awakening for Murphy.

"I'd been consumed with the need 9,000 miles away in the streets of Pretoria. But there is a real need here. Somehow, we've stumbled on the fact that our kids need these opportunities to act."

Murphy credits the students for keeping the ball rolling - when he was in danger of soccer ball-induced exhaustion - and, later, asking for his help to start an Amnesty International group at the school.

Years later, the pace of international activity in Hampton shows no sign of slowing down. People like John Murphy and Ida and David MacPherson are now making links to people working with other organizations in Saint John and Fredericton. The local churches have sponsored a number of refugee families. Another community fundraiser is underway to benefit women in Afghanistan.

"It doesn't really matter how big you are," says Ida MacPherson, "if you've got that desire and you've got that fire of passion for doing something. And that's here in Hampton."

Source: IDEAS - The International Development and Environment Article Service

The International Development and Environment Article Service is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency.

Lisa Roberts is a Halifax-based freelance writer specializing in international development issues.