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Voice of Witness – Sharing History Initiative

by hreusaJune 26, 2019June 21, 2019Leave a comment

The Voice of Witness 2019 Sharing History Initiative is underway, and this year they are giving away free sets of Solito, Solita, with one free copy of Say It Forward per set.

The Sharing History Initiative introduces oral history and social justice storytelling to under-resourced classrooms and communities around the United States by providing educators, storytellers, and advocates with free books & free culturally relevant curricula.

Educators and organizers from public schools/universities, community colleges, and education, human rights, or arts-based non-profits are encouraged to apply. Visit their website for more information and FAQs.

Application Deadline: June 30, 2019

>> Learn more and apply

Take Action on the Rights of the Child – Call Your Mayor

by hreusaJune 24, 2019June 24, 2019Leave a comment

Although the US has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), there are a number of cities that have supported its provision. The CRC is important to safeguard children’s rights to safety, to well-being, and to remain with their families.

This June there will be US Conference of Mayors to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii. The conference provides a great opportunity for all of us to defend and promote the rights of children in our country.

HRE USA urges everyone to reach out to their Mayor’s Office by calling and/or emailing to:

Find out if your Mayor will be attending the conference to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii from June 28-July 1, 2019
Urge your Mayor to raise his/her support for the CRC city resolution passed in their city as a model for other mayors.

Check here to see if your Mayor is registered to attend.

It might take several attempts to reach the Mayor’s Office, but we all know that change does not come easily. Whether you succeeded or failed in getting an answer, please let HRE USA know.

To get involved and join the working group, please contact Benil Mostafa.

>> Learn more about HRE USA CRC Campaign

2019 Steering Committee Nominations

by hreusaJune 14, 2019July 9, 2019

Interested in helping shape the future of human rights education? Then consider nominating yourself or a colleague to join HRE USA’s Steering Committee.

Our rules call for the election every summer of new Steering Committee members to replace retiring members. This year there are 2 open seats to be filled, and we invite all members to make nominations for their replacements. You may nominate anyone who fits the criteria for membership and can fulfill the responsibilities of Steering Committee members, including nominating yourself!

Brief biographies of current Steering Committee members can be viewed here. A ballot will be sent to all HRE USA members in July.

Elected Steering Committee members will serve a three-year term beginning in August 2019.

DEADLINE: TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2019

>> Learn more
>> Nomination Form

For further inquiries, please contact Emily Farell

New Lessons and UN Recognition of HRE USA Curriculum Guide

by hreusaJune 13, 2019December 18, 2020Leave a comment

Four new lessons have been added to the HRE USA Curriculum Integration Guide. All of the lessons are available for free to download in Word and PDF format. The new lessons include:

Human Rights & the South African Constitution by Malcolm Coates, a middle school teacher at William Annin Middle School in Bernards Township, NJ
Human Rights & Justice: An Ancient & Modern Case Study by Mary Backman, a middle school teacher in West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, NJ
Human Rights Socratic Seminar by Jacob Torsiello, a middle school teacher at Randolph MIddle School, NJ
The Industrial Revolution & Workers’ Rights by John Terry, a middle school teacher in Wayne Township Public Schools, NJ

HRE USA is also excited to announce that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) now features eight lessons from the Curriculum Integration Guide in UNODC’s Education for Justice (E4J) Library of Resources – a comprehensive, open access database of pre-existing, relevant and age-appropriate educational materials.

>> HRE USA Curriculum Integration Guide

HRE USA Survey

by hreusaJune 5, 2019June 4, 2019

Take the membership survey and receive a FREE POSTER on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

To improve the quality of our member experience, we want to know more about you, your involvement in HRE USA, and how we can better serve you.

The survey takes 10-15 minutes.

START

Teaching Tolerance Report Examines the Rise of Hate in Schools

by hreusaMay 14, 2019May 13, 2019

By Teaching Tolerance Staff

While disturbing incidents of hate and bias in schools are regularly reported in the news media, the incidents are just a fraction of what educators are encountering in classrooms across the country, a new study by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project finds.

The report, Hate at School, compares 2018 news reports to a survey of more than 2,700 K-12 educators conducted by Teaching Tolerance that asked them to describe incidents involving hate symbols or the targeting of others on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, immigration status, gender or sexual identity.

“The teacher reports confirmed our suspicions that there are far more hate and bias incidents than make the news and that the responses by school leaders vary considerably,” said Teaching Tolerance Director Maureen Costello. “It’s up to school leaders and members of our communities to ensure that students are not only safe from harm but have the opportunity to learn in an environment that’s inclusive and free of bias.”

Teaching Tolerance found 821 school-based hate incidents in the media in all of 2018, but teachers reported 3,265 such incidents in the fall 2018 semester alone. Fewer than 5 percent of the incidents witnessed by educators were reported in the news media.

Hate at School analyzes comments from survey respondents to gauge the types of hate incidents occurring in schools, where they happen, who is most often the target of these incidents, and how schools are responding.

The most common hate and bias incidents were based on race or ethnicity. These incidents made up 33 percent of those reported by educators and 63 percent of those reported in the news media. They typically involved racial slurs, primarily the n-word, along with a dozen accounts involving blackface and a handful involving nooses. The study also found that these incidents were more likely to result in disciplinary action and a denunciation of the act by school leaders.

Of the incidents reported by educators, those involving racism and antisemitism, which made up 11 percent of the educator reports, were most likely to be reported in the news media. Anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ incidents were the least likely to make the news.

Most of the hate and bias incidents witnessed by educators were not addressed by school staff. No one was disciplined in 57 percent of them. And nine times out of 10, administrators failed to denounce the bias or reaffirm school values, the study found.

In 2016, Teaching Tolerance brought public attention to the school climate crisis in two reports, The Trump Effect and After Election Day: The Trump Effect. Based on surveys of thousands of educators during the campaign and immediately after the election, the reports revealed a wave of political and identity-based harassment in schools, where students across the nation were emboldened to bully and target classmates.

FBI hate crime data – widely acknowledged as underreported – shows that in 2017 hate crimes in K–12 schools and colleges increased by about 25 percent over the previous year, outpacing the national increase of 17 percent.

To help combat the rise of hate in schools, Teaching Tolerance offers Responding to Hate and Bias at School – a manual that guides educators through crisis-management and post-crisis efforts and offers research-based strategies for reducing bullying and creating a welcoming school climate. It is available to schools and educators across the country at no cost.

>> Access full report
>> Take Action

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The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama with offices in Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana, is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. For more information, see www.splcenter.org.

HRE USA Advocates for Migrant Rights in the U.S.

by hreusaMay 13, 2019May 13, 2019Leave a comment

By Carina D’Urso, ARTE Intern in collaboration with Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario, HRE USA Co-Chair and ARTE Executive Director

Over the last few months, HRE USA has been focusing on immigration and the detention of children at the United States – Mexico border. In February, a representative from HRE USA joined the action coordinated by the US Human Rights Network to deliver 80,000 petition signatures to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling upon the United Nations to launch an “investigation into US violations of the human rights of asylum seekers.” At the beginning of this month, HRE USA continued this work, through an event organized by HRE USA Regional Representative, Michelle Chouinard, entitled, “Immigration, Detention, & Resistance Through Art.”

HRE USA held the event on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, in collaboration with Art and Resistance Through Education (ARTE), the Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy Concentration at SIPA at Columbia University, and the Human Rights Working Group. It was a lively night of art creation and human rights advocacy. The walls of the room were lined by work curated by Pastor Isaac Scott, an artist and the program director of The Confined Arts and Columbia University Justice-in-Education Scholar. As individuals reflected upon the themes of justice and narrative, guests were encouraged to contribute to a collaborative collage. Participants used moving imagery and text to create messages of resistance and solidarity.

The night was completed with a panel discussion which highlighted the voices of a passionate group of human rights activists, artists, and academics. Through moderation by Khalil A. Cumberbatch, the chief strategist of New Yorkers United for Justice, they welcomed the audience into their conversation of justice, creating a universal call for social change.

Panelists: (left to right): Khalil A. Cumberbatch (moderator), Tsion Gurmu, Geraldine Downey, Angy Rivera, Pastor Isaac Scott, and Ximena Ospina

Surrounded by art, the panelists highlighted the connection between art and activism. Ximena Ospina, trans activist and founder of the undocumented student group at Columbia University, pinpointed that art is about disruption. She passionately spoke for art that promotes a version of storytelling that is owned and amplified by the teller. This art is individualistic and active, radiating into the world unapologetically. Simultaneously, she claimed art as a demand for justice, rather than a humble request to be seen.

Angy Rivera, co-executive director at New York State Youth Leadership Council, praised art that exists on the margins. Rivera emphasized that art does not need to yearn for the acceptance of the mainstream in order to thrive. She identified that assimilation into whiteness is both unnecessary and counterproductive. After her community of undocumented artists struggled to find spaces that would accept their voices, they vowed to create their own spaces. With strength of purpose and a great commitment to justice, Rivera fosters art that is unconstrained and liberated, one that welcomes the authentic stories of individuals.

Tsion Gurmu, the legal director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration and the founder and director of the Queer Black immigrant project encompasses the journey towards justice through her work. She calls for solutions that are based on a transnational approach to migration. She reaches into the foundation of this issue in order to unearth the root issue of forced migration. Gurmu desires an international transformation in the laws and policies that force individuals to flee their homes in the first place. The United States should not simply be a responder to crisis, but rather an active and solution-seeking partner for those outside of the country.

Professor Geraldine Downey, the director of the Columbia University Center for Justice, strives to use her work to intertwine art and criminal justice. She is actively working to bring Columbia into prisons in order to serve incarcerated communities. Through the lens of art, she believes people can discover all that they are capable of. She was moved by one woman who found her vocation in creating coloring books. After making them for her own child, she spread her creativity to other children. It is stories such as this one which resonant perpetually, capturing the humanity of those who are incarcerated.

Pastor Isaac Scott tirelessly works to unearth the dehumanization of human beings who are incarcerated. Through the significance of linguistics, it is difficult to find a single positive word that has the same power as a negative word. Names serve as powerful identifiers, just as signs in a space to communicate rules and facts to people. In this way, language can be warped into a tool for incarceration. Through his research at Columbia University, Scott discovered that words such as “prisoner” and “criminal” have quantitatively negative impacts on those who they refer to. They are knives that cut into the humanity of individuals, leaving them wounded and scarred. They create an unjust association with being innately and entirely flawed. As Scott keenly described, these words do not give identity to anyone.

Together, the panelists called for the re-humanizing of language in order to revitalize humanity and in order to shift our perspectives towards the needs of the marginalized, while embracing their voices in their entirety. Oral history, especially when it is intertwined with the visual arts, allows for choice and agency. By deeply understanding the complexity of storytelling, we may better understand those who share their narratives.

HRE USA was able to continue to take action on immigration beyond the event by co-signing onto a public comment submitted to the United States Commission on Civil Rights regarding immigration detention centers and treatment of immigrants. The public comment can be viewed here.

Join HRE USA Campaign on the Convention on the Rights of the Child

by hreusaMay 8, 2019May 9, 2019

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is turning 30 this year. The CRC is the most comprehensive human rights treaty on children’s rights and notably the most widely ratified treaty since its introduction 30 years ago. The treaty has been ratified by every country with one notable exception — the United States, which has never even sent it to the Senate for consent and approval.

While there is no good reason for the United States not to ratify the CRC, there are several reasons why we urgently need it. Ratifying the convention is not just about saving face in the international community — it will require us to confront some hard truths about the exceptionally bad way we treat children in this country, work to bring our laws and practices in line with international law, and ensure that children’s rights are human rights.

In honor of the upcoming 30th Anniversary of the CRC, HRE USA is galvanizing support to not only work towards the ultimate goal of U.S. ratification of the CRC, but also, to partner with individuals, organizations, institutions, and communities to achieve the short-term goal of the endorsement of the CRC at state, local, and school district levels. Overall we hope the campaign will increase awareness of the importance of the CRC and how the U.S. falls short in fulfilling the rights of the child.

To get involved and join the working group, please contact Benil Mostafa.

Take HRE USA Membership Survey

by hreusaApril 25, 2019

We are nothing without our members!

To improve the quality of our member experience, we want to know more about you, your involvement in HRE USA, and how we can better serve you.

The survey takes 10-15 minutes.

Complete the survey and receive a FREE POSTER on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

START

Immigration, Detention, & Resistance Through Art

by hreusaApril 22, 2019April 22, 2019Leave a comment

EVENT DETAILS:

When: Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Where: Columbia University, International Affairs Building, 420 W. 118 St., New York, NY 10027
Time: 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Cost: Free and open to the public

The Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy Concentration at SIPA, in collaboration with HRE USA, the Human Rights Working Group, and ARTE, invites you to join us for a panel conversation on immigration and detention in the United States.

Immigration policy and mass incarceration represent today one of the main sites of human rights abuses and violations in the US. The criminalization of displaced peoples, in its turn, is part of a broader context of securitization of borders worldwide, a notion that contributes to and strengthens regimens of surveillance and detention advanced by States. With that in mind, the panel seeks to bring together community-based artists and organizers, academics, immigration advocates and attorneys to discuss insights and intersections between their work. The discussion will also explore the ways in which community art can be mobilized as a form of resistance, and the event will allow attendees to support policy advocacy and engage in community art.This event is co-sponsored by: the Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy Concentration at SIPA, the Human Rights Working group, Art and Resistance Through Education (ARTE), and Human Rights Educators (HRE) USA.

>> Learn more and register