I agree with Lynn that novels go hand-in-hand with building empathy, but do not think it is the main source. Growing up I learned more empathy throughout social media, articles, movies and real life situations. I learned to empathize and to understand the value of human rights by understanding the violations communities go through by the news and protests. I believe throughout this semester reading novels involved with human rights will definitely help me understand, learn and empathize.
One solution I believe to contribute to the growth and history of human rights is that over time people learned how they should and shouldn't be treated. History consists of dictators as well as communities who conquered those dictators. People over time have learned to take back their own power and to not be ruled by others in a way that violates their rights. This is still happening today, take BLM for instance. When there are human rights violations happening in todays world (which there definitely is!) people know how to stand up, to fight back, to protest, to boycott. We have learned these things over time, and will continue to learn and to fight for justice.
A character that relates to this topic that "novels build empathy", although he is based off of a TV series, is prince Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender. Zuko was the villian, turned hero, in this series. It isn't until the middle of the series that we learn about Zuko's hard life with his abusive father that helps us understand and empathize with the character. This story is an example of how I learned to build empathy through a TV series, which could be the same had this series been a book I had read.