Just three years since it broke away from Sudan, the new country of South Sudan is embroiled in a violent civil war. This article examines what went wrong and why, by discussing the incredible difficulty of building a new nation from scratch following years of conflict, war, suspicion, and great expectations. How this tragedy will end is…

In early July, the country of Sudan, wracked by civil war since the 1980s, officially split into two separate nations, Sudan and South Sudan. Six months earlier, over a seven-day period, the people in southern Sudan had voted in a national referendum on whether to secede from the North. The voters had two choices: "Separation" or "Unity." For the…

For six months in 2008, as a Fulbright Scholar, this author served as a senior researcher at the Centre for Conflict Management at the National University of Rwanda where he conducted research into the lives of survivors of the 1994 genocide. The research comprised lengthy interviews (between seven and fifteen hours) with each survivor. The…

The genocide in Srebrenica was the largest single act of genocide in Europe in 50 years, or since the Naziperpetrated Holocaust. In this article, the author was invited by the Bosnian foreign ministry to attend a 10-year commemoration of the genocide on July 11, 2005. It was followed by an international conference in Sarajevo, "The International…

Twelve years after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda remains a beautiful, but wounded nation. It is a nation full of hope--one comprised of resilient people working to rebuild a nation that was largely destroyed, when 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered in some 90 days during what is known as the machete genocide. In this article, the author…

This article discusses the history of the Armenian genocide and the impact it brought on the Armenians. The author relates his experience attending a two-day memorial commemoration in the desert of Syria for the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide that he became fully aware of how profound the memory of that human disaster is for today's…

One of the many important aspects of the Darfur Atrocities Documentation Project was that it set a precedent for what the U.S. and/or other nations can, and should do, when future cases of potential genocide arise. Far too often in the recent past, the international community (the United Nations, individual governments, many nongovernmental…

Describes the idea of the null curriculum in the context of teaching about genocide. Explores obstacles that prevent educators from teaching about genocides other than the Holocaust. Explains how teachers can begin teaching about other genocides in their classrooms. (CMK)

Over the past decade and a half, states in all regions of the United States have formed Holocaust councils, advisory groups, and other agencies for the purpose of developing educational programs in response to a growing interest in the Holocaust. Some states have called upon educators and Holocaust agencies within the state to develop curricula…

Discusses why and how teachers use simulations to teach about the Holocaust. Asserts that simulations constitute "poor pedagogy" and oversimplify Holocaust history. Argues that firsthand accounts from Holocaust survivors, bystanders, and victims be utilized when teaching Holocaust history. Includes excerpts from victims and survivors as examples.…

Reveals the many barriers to ending genocide and introduces the different methods the United Nations intends to use as early-warning systems to stop genocide. Believes that when teaching about genocide, students must concentrate on (1) learning about unknown genocides and the Holocaust; and (2) remembering that the victims are people, not…

Over the past two decades, interest in Holocaust education has grown substantially as individual states, starting in the 1980s, began to mandate and/or recommend Holocaust studies as part of the social studies curriculum. As a result, these mandates and/or interest in the Holocaust have spawned any number of curriculum products, some of which seek…

Describes a series of opening activities for the study of the Holocaust in order to discover: (1) students' current knowledge base about the Holocaust; (2) students' depth of knowledge about the Holocaust; and (3) students' crucial questions and concerns about the Holocaust. (CMK)

Torture is a worldwide, not an isolated, phenomenon. It is epidemic in the world. A human rights unit for high school students on torture as a tool of the state is presented. An interdisciplinary approach, involving social studies and language arts, is used. (RM)

The following resources are cited in this annotated bibliography dealing with human rights: general references (background readings for teachers and students); classroom materials; fiction; audiovisuals; periodicals; and organizations and associations dedicated to the investigation of human rights infractions or education and communication on…