Article 26: Amnesty International's Human Rights Education Update (December 2003)



ARTICLE 26
Amnesty International USA
Human Rights Education Program
December 2003
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In this issue:

- Opening Letter
- Think Peace
- AIUSA Human Rights Priority Setting
- NYC Work
- More


Dear Educator Activists,

The field of human rights is dynamic. As we have seen over the years,
evolving from the UDHR, newer areas, such as environmental, indigenous, and
developmental rights have become part of the common vocabulary in the human
rights world. Within the field of human right education, progress is also
apparent. The featured lesson plans in this edition highlight that growth
in a couple of ways. First, they were done by students in the school of
education at SUNY, College at Oneonta, which demonstrates how human rights
education is now beginning to play a role in future teachers' preparation.
Second, these lessons were developed for implementation in an
interdisciplinary environment, where human rights serves as the link across
the curriculum - no longer are "human rights lessons" only applicable to
social studies classes - they can be perfectly integrated into health
studies, language, mathematics, science, art, etc. Look for more lesson
plans soon on our website!

We are also happy to offer a story that was an outcome of our first
national HRE Summit, held this past July, and covered in the National
Council for the Social Studies magazine, Social Studies and the Young
Learner, here reprinted in its original full length.

Progress, justice, equality- in education and through education. The time
is right! With your involvement, tomorrow can happen today.

Nick Sullivan



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THINK PEACE

In an article that was published by Social Studies Young Learner Mary Lee
Webeck, Margit McGuire, Blythe Hintz, Margaret Smith Crocco, and Cynthia A.
Tyson, all participants in the first national HRE Summit held this past
summer in New York City, discuss the No Child Left Behind legislation, as
well as the role of human rights education in schools today.

Read more:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=305607&l=7650



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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA - NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIORITY SETTING

AIUSA is currently at the consultation stage of setting priorities for its
next 2-year workplan, which covers the period running from October 2004
through September 2006. National priorities are human rights areas in which
AIUSA will concentrate action and resources to make a direct impact over a
given two-year cycle. Make your voice heard!

Learn more:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=305607&l=7653

(The following links require a password for the Members section of this
website. AI members can apply for a password by filling out this form:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=305607&l=7654)


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NYC WORK

The HRE program, along with other team members, is in the planning phase of
establishing a human rights school! As part of the New Visions for Public
Schools initiative, the HRE program is aiming at starting a public high
school in Brooklyn, NY, tentatively titled "The Academy for Human Rights
and Community Leadership". Working in partnership with educators, parents
and community leaders, our academy will welcome children of all achievement
levels and backgrounds. We are looking forward to the chance of fostering
an environment where students can learn about and through human rights,
which will be encouraged in holistically, in school culture and throughout
the curriculum. If all goes according to plan, we will be opening our
school to 9th graders come September!

Find out more about New Visions for Public Schools:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=305607&l=7658


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CRISIS IN DRC

Over three million civilians have died and a vast humanitarian catastrophe
has erupted during the last five years of conflict in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC). More than eight countries have been involved
in the conflict, many responsible for transfers of arms to armed opposition
groups that have resulted in gross violations of international human rights
and humanitarian law. The situation is particularly dire in the
Northeastern district of Ituri, with an estimated 50,000 dead and 500,000
people displaced. Ituri is an area of considerable natural wealth, with
potentially rich farming lands, deposits of gold, diamonds and coltan, and
the competition for control of these resources by combatant forces has been
a major factor in the prolongation of the crisis. Equally hard hit by these
years of violence are North and South Kivu provinces, where the extraction
of resources and trade for arms continue to fuel the conflict.

Learn more and take action:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=305607&l=7656


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LESSON PLANS

-- Discrimination and Sports History
-- Discrimination and Literature - Langston Hughes

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=305607&l=7657




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