LESSON PLANS
Are Human Rights Universal?
Source: HRE USA
Using hypothetical examples, students will discuss the concept of universal human rights and their personal thoughts and opinions on the issues. Students will be asked to read or listen to various news articles about the topics, conduct their own research, and prepare notes for a discussion. The purpose is to use current and personal examples in order to engage students in the discussion of human rights.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies
Competing Visions of Human Rights: Questions for US Policy
Source: The Choices Program
A full curriculum that uses readings, case studies, and primary sources to help students examine the evolving role that human rights has played in international politics and explore the current debate on U.S. human rights policy.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies, US History, current events
Digital Rights
Source: HRE USA
Our understanding of the laws, rights, and responsibilities when we access and use the Internet have lagged behind the extreme pace of technological development. In this lesson, students will learn about the rights we have every time we use a digital device to post, communicate, click, and browse as well as the rights that young people and digital advocates are demanding be enacted into law in the United States. Students will also learn about our responsibilities as users of the Internet regarding the way we consume and share information and engage with others in online spaces. When we better understand our digital rights, we are empowered to be good digital citizens and insist that companies and the government develop technology in ethical and responsible ways.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies
“Do All Children Have Sweet Dreams?”
Source: HRE USA
This lesson invites students to develop an understanding of the basic concepts of needs and wants, but bring their comprehension beyond their own world. Students will also question and discuss how some needs guaranteed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child are met and the difficulties guaranteeing these to all children worldwide.
Grade Level: elementary school
Subject Area: social studies
The Eight Stages of Genocide
Source: HRE USA
In this foundational lesson, students will learn about the different stages that lead to genocides, and therefore will allow students to understand what patterns typically serve as antecedents to genocide. It will also give students the tools necessary to identify what indicators to look for when pinpointing regions where genocides can potentially take place in the future. Understanding the stages of genocide also enables people to act to stop policies and practices that can lead to genocide.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies
Fundamental Freedoms: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Source: Facing History and Ourselves
Curriculum including primary documents, connecting questions to stimulate discussion, photographs, maps, political cartoons.
Grade Level: high school
Global Environmental Problems: Implications for U.S. Policy
Source: Choices Program, 2009
Explores the relationship between public policy in the United States and the ecological health of the planet.
Price: $35 for hard copy, $30 for PDF
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies, US History
Going Global – Investigating Global Issues of Interest and Importance
Source: HRE USA
In this independent research project, students focus on areas of interest to them based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and then study a location that is a hotbed of violations of their chosen human right. The long-term study culminates with a structured presentation of their topic with the intent to raise awareness of Human Rights issues and the intent of proposing a potential solution utilizing specific problem-solving steps..
Grade Level: middle school
Subject Area: social studies
History, Human Rights, and the Power of One: Human trafficking education curriculum
Source: Fredrick Douglass Family Initiative and Not My Life
The Trafficking-Free Community (TFC) project aims to reduce the vulnerability of children to the crime of sex trafficking and other forms of human trafficking through a combination of classroom curricula, educator training and the coordination of community resources. Each phase of the project, in a first-of-its-kind study, will be measured and evaluated in order to provide a clear understanding of how prevention and early intervention initiatives, geared toward youth, can impact the incidence of human trafficking in communities.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, current events
Human Rights & Justice: An Ancient & Modern Case Study
Source: HRE USA
This lesson challenges students to establish, defend, and complicate their understandings of the relationship between justice and human rights. Students will evaluate both an ancient law code (Hammurabi’s Code) and modern examples of juvenile justice in the United States using relevant articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to determine the ways in which human rights can be challenged or reinforced by different applications of justice.
Grade Level: middle school
Subject Area: social studies
Human Rights & The South African Constitution
Source: HRE USA
In this lesson on the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, students will look at the Constitution of South Africa because it is the most pro-human rights constitution in the world, with guarantees for housing, healthcare, food, water, a clean environment, and many other rights. Students will then analyze the gap between the promise of these rights and the implementation of them.
Grade Level: middle school
Subject Area: social studies
Human Rights in the Ancient World
Source: HRE USA
Students wrestle with the common perception that the ancient world was a period in history that largely ignored human rights. By examining both Hammurabi’s Law Code of 1754 B.C.E. and Rome’s Law of the Twelve Tables of 450 B.C.E., the students will discover that specific opportunities, rights, and positions within society were detailed for men, women, children, slaves, and other groups, along with the limitations that one would expect to find in these documents. By conducting a thorough document analysis, comparing the two law codes, and discussing their findings in a Socratic Seminar, the students will develop conclusions about ancient notions of human rights and the changes (improvements or losses) that occurred over time.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies
Human Rights in National Memory
Source: HRE USA Curriculum Integration Guide
In this lesson, students explore and deconstruct nationalism in historical interpretation and consider how politics, power, and identity influence the recognition of human rights violations and issues in contemporary society as well as in the context of national history. This lesson/project should be done at the end of a US history course or following a unit on the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s and 1970s. It can also be done in an upper-class elective course relating to human rights and genocide. Students will need prior knowledge on American history from the 1700s – 1950 including the creation of the United Nations and the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Grade Level: High school
Subject Area: social studies
The Industrial Revolution & Workers’ Rights
Source: HRE USA
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the effects that the development of industrial capitalism had on industrial workers in Europe and the United States in the 19th century, to introduce students to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as an instrument by which they can understand and measure industrial workers’ rights with human rights issues, and to allow students to apply their understanding of workplace issues as human rights issues to contemporary scenarios involving workers’ rights.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies
Let’s Take Action
Source: HRE USA
This lesson uses the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), as well as clips from the documentaries “China’s African Takeover” by Unreported World and The Dark Side of Chocolate as an avenue to introduce violations of child rights. Students will create an action plan to address CRC violations and raise awareness about children’s rights.
Grade Level: middle school
Subject Area: social studies
Pressing Human Rights Issues in Africa
Source: HRE USA
Students will be introduced to several pressing human rights issues that are occurring in countries in Africa, and then work in groups to research and create a report on possible ways to improve the human rights situation and present their plan of action to their peers. This lesson is intended to be a follow-up after an introductory lesson on human rights has already taken place.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies
Rights Auction
Source: Close Up Foundation
Compares and evaluates US Constitutional Rights and human rights in the UDHR.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies, government
Responding to Terrorism: Challenges to Democracy
Source: The Choices Program
Examines the issues surrounding the 9.11.01 attacks and the U.S. response to terrorism in a constructive context that promotes dialogue about future policy directions.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies, US History
Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Source: HRE USA Curriculum Integration Guide
This lesson provides students with an opportunity to evaluate indigenous human rights as proposed by past or current legislation or international agreements. In this specific lesson, students will evaluate the United States government’s American Indian policy of the late 1800’s; however, the lesson can be adapted for any class that addresses indigenous people’s rights or people.
Grade Level: High school
Subject Area: social studies, global education
Tolerance in Times of Trial
Source: PBS
Uses the treatment of citizens of Japanese and German ancestry during World War II as historical examples of ethnic conflict during times of trial. Examines contemporary examples of ethnic conflict, discrimination, and stereotyping at home and abroad.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, US History
This is My Home
Source: Human Rights Resource Center
Lessons on US History
Grade Level: High school
Subject Area: social studies, US History
This is My Home: Migration
Source: Human Rights Resource Center
Background information, lesson plans, action opportunities, resources, and publication.
Grade level: Elementary
Subject area: social studies
The UDHR & Contemporary Issues
Source: HRE USA
This lesson asks students to correlate the UDHR to current newspaper articles which illustrate the portrayal of human rights in one of four situations (rights achieved, rights denied, rights violated, rights in conflict). Students will explain that situation, the correlation to the UDHR, and then write a reflection on the role of the UDHR in potentially resolving the situation.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies
The United Nations: Challenges and Change
Source: The Choices Program
A full curriculum that introduces the debates about the role of the UN in the world, including trying to end civil wars, enact environmental regulation, and coordinate efforts to alleviate poverty. Explores how the United States must consider the role it will play within the organization and the role it should have in international affairs.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies, US History
Using Inquiry-Based Research to Highlight Contemporary Human Rights Challenges
Source: HRE USA
Students will be introduced to the concept of Human Rights and tasked with finding how they are still applicable to our world today. This series of lessons will begin with a general introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this, students will design their own questions about what human rights abuses may still be occurring today. The lesson will culminate in students creating an infographic, which will then be shared with the class.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies
U.S. Immigration Policy in an Unsettled World
Source: The Choices Program
Full curriculum that explores the history of immigration to the United States and prepares students to articulate their own views on the future of immigration policy. Offers readings, role play, and lesson plans.
Grade level: high school
Subject area: social studies, US History, current events
hreusa.org 