Category 2:
Peace and Democracy: Social Issues

A. Task: Produce a website that teaches about international human rights, fair elections and judicial reform.

Read rules and instructions.

B. Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to list basic international human rights and human rights for citizens of their country.
Students will be able to describe the significance of human rights, fair elections, and judicial reform in the development of democratic societies.
Students will be able to identify the role international relations and diplomacy play in the development of international human rights
Students will be able to list basic human rights for citizens of their country.

C. Discussion Questions:

These discussion questions are provided to introduce the topics of international human rights, fair elections and judicial reform.

What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
What are considered basic human rights in your country? Do all countries have the same basic human rights? Discuss the differences.
What are some significant human rights issues in your country?
Why are issues such as religious freedom and fair elections important to you, your community, and your country?
How can human rights positively affect the whole world?
Give some examples of significant human rights achievements in history.
How did these events or achievements affect the rest of the world?
Where in the world are people today striving for human rights? Who are they and what are they doing?
How does diplomacy help promote human rights in other countries?
Are there individuals or groups of people in your country who have struggled or are currently struggling for their rights?
What historical documents lay out human rights for citizens of your country? Do immigrants in your country have different rights?
Who are some famous people who championed human rights? What did they propose and/or do? What effects of their work can be seen today?
What local, national, and international organizations promote human rights?
Is getting an education a human right?
What is judicial reform?
What are some of the issues that are posed by people working for judicial reform?
What are some examples of ideas for implementing judicial reform?
Is judicial reform needed? Explain why or why not.
What is a fair election?
What should happen if an election in the your country is declared unfair?
Where in the world has there been what the press has called an unfair election? Why was it called that? What was done about it?

D. Suggested Starter Activities:

Read biographies of people who have suffered and overcome human rights violations and write a summary of what your learned.
Create a survey asking questions about the different views on a topic in human rights. Have your classmates and parents respond and discuss the answers.
Research human rights organizations and learn the scope of their work.
Talk with local election officials and learn what they do.
Build a list of judicial reform topics along with pro and con voices for each topic.
Develop methods for judging the validity and reliability of the Web sites you will use for research: by whom are they written? How will you know if you can trust what they say?

E. Content Standards (USA)