Human Rights are an essential and integral part of Democracy, right? According to a recently-released Human Rights Watch 2008 World Report, there has been a significant “cheapening of democracy,” with dictators posing as democrats and Western governments condoning human rights violations. Speaking of the world’s “established democracies,” the authors of the report note:“If they accept any dictator who puts on the charade of an election, if they allow their commitment to democracy to be watered down by their pursuit of resources, commercial opportunities, and short-sighted visions of security, they will devalue the currency of democracy. And if dictators can get away with calling themselves “democrats,” they will have acquired a powerful tool for deflecting pressure to uphold human rights. It is time to stop selling democracy on the cheap and to start substituting a broader and more meaningful vision of the concept that incorporates all human rights.”
The report provides useful and important information for the discussion of human rights issues with your students. The HRW report website includes a PDF of the complete report, as well as essays, photos, and audio commentary.
If you want to take your students further into the exploration of human rights, the Human Rights Education Association and Amnesty International have created a Human Rights and Service Learning manual, (a downloadable PDF file) designed to help teachers integrate human rights studies into your curriculum. The manual includes lesson plans and service-learning projects.
You can also find downloadable human rights lesson plans and activities on IHE’s website.
~ Marsha, Web Content/Community Manager
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