Join us for our new Human Rights for 21st Century Californians workshop at Fresno State University on Saturday, February 3! 

Professor Keith Watenpaugh will talk about the significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, its creation, and applications of it in the post-World War II world. Following this will be a demonstration of lessons — complete with literacy strategies for English learners — created by two teacher-leaders, Ashlee Lidyoff and Nina Jasper, with the Human Rights Studies program at UC Davis. Those who attend the program will receive full lesson plans and materials, additional primary sources and background information.

Why teach about Human Rights?  The creation of the UN is in the Standards and Framework for 10th grade, but it comes at a point in the year when we are hard pressed for time.  There is so much to teach about World War II and the post-war world and so few days left in the school year!  Hopes for peace and human rights can seem less urgent than the threat of mutually assured destruction and post-colonial conflicts.  Although conflict and realpolitik are important, we should also give our students hope and strategies for the future.  These lessons include the examples of W.E.B. Dubois, who used the UDHR to accuse the United States of genocide towards African-Americans, Bertha Lutz, a Brazilian representative to the San Francisco conference who won the debate to add “and women” to the UN charter, and the Mirabel sisters of the Dominican Republic, tireless fighters for justice, murdered by the Trujillo regime.  Human Rights activism avenged them, as international pressure by NGOs, individuals and other states brought down the Trujillo regime.  Let’s show our students that concern for human rights can make a difference!