Subject(s): current events, teaching tools

Published in October 2023, this brief guide offers suggestions for navigating difficult conversations about Israel and Palestine.

Subject(s): current events, history, social studies

In this lesson, students will consider where responsibility lies for preventing or stopping mass atrocities and the potential challenges faced by international actors when making decisions about intervention. Students will work with a historical case study and review testimony from survivors and witnesses, addresses from U.S. presidents, and other primary source documents to provide a fuller picture of these events.

Subject(s): civics, current events

Human Rights Are for Everyone: A Guide to Teaching for Positive Change provides an opportunity for creating a vibrant and timely training program about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for youth and adults. It provide the tools for teaching an overview of human rights ideals and an in-depth look at the UDHR. Most importantly, this guide encourages critical thinking, collaboration, and activism.

Subject(s): current events

This lesson is designed to introduce students to international human rights standards and expose students to stories of real people who have had their rights violated and have defended their rights or the rights of others. The lesson's activities allow students to explore the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the framework it provides in the struggle for human rights around the world.

Subject(s): current events, media, teaching tools

Explore our resource pages for each individual article of the UDHR, including lessons and related news stories.

Subject(s): history, social studies

The Stages of Genocide Toolkit is designed to help teachers cover the topic of genocide in a meaningful and incisive way. Using the “Ten Stages of Genocide” framework, it provides an opportunity to explore multiple instances of mass atrocity. The Toolkit also highlights the connection between genocide and human rights.

Subject(s): current events, history, social studies

The process of rebuilding after widespread human rights abuses is often referred to as transitional justice. In the wake of the genocide, Rwandans embarked on their own transitional justice process. In this lesson, students will learn about the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and the ongoing process of transitional justice in the small African nation.

Subject(s): history, social studies

In this activity, students examine the petition, We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government Against the Negro People. Through a close reading of the petition and a class discussion, students will draw connections from the past to current headlines about racial violence and police brutality in the United States.

Subject(s): teaching tools

A short discussion activity about the definition of genocide