Activity Four

This activity is to accompany Unit Five of the Curriculum Guide.

Incorporating the C.E.L.s:

• Independent Learning
• Critical & Creative Thinking
• Personal & Social Values & Skills

Concept Development Lesson for:

• National Sovereignty
• Foreign Intervention
• Human Rights
• National Unity
• Dissent
• Collective Security

This concept development activity will give students an appreciation of the tension that exists between national sovereignty and "perceived" foreign intervention/intrusion in the internal affairs of a nation. The simulation activity also allows students to investigate contemporary "human rights" issues and the potential role of the United Nations in protecting human rights.

Knowledge Objectives

The student will:

• know that national leaderships are concerned with maintaining enough power to control events inside the nation;
• know that distinct population groups sometimes find that their best interests are not served by the political status quo;
• know that governments view national unity as an strategic interest and often feel justified in instituting harsh measures to maintain national unity;
• know that national leaderships often resist the involvement of foreign interests and/or nations in their domestic affairs; and,
• know that multinational organizations play a role in resolving disputes between nations and protecting the human rights of distinct populations.

Skills Development

The student will:

• practise stating a proposition that is testable and guides the search for data;
• practise collecting data in a systematic manner; and,
• practise presenting analyses of the data to confirm or disprove the proposition.

Values Issues

The student will:

• discuss whether maintaining of law and order by protecting the sovereignty of a state is more important than protecting rights and freedoms;
• discuss the balance that should exist between the need for world order and the individual sovereignty of a state;
• discuss whether the right of self-defence should be extended to ethnic groups who are faced with serious threats to their existence; and,
• discuss whether there is a moral justification for breaking the social contract of a nation that has existed for a significant period of time.

Outline of the Activity

Step One

Select one group of students to represent the United Nations Security Council. That group will receive pleas from various groups, nations, who seek the protection of the United Nations against the actions/policies of their national governments.

• Since the Security Council of the United Nations is the body that has the power to utilize forces of the United Nations, the group could represent the Security Council.

Have several groups represent populations that seek to change their status/condition within or outside the nations in that they reside.

• An equal number of groups would represent the nations in that those petitioning groups reside and would oppose the intervention of the UN.

The groups could represent:

• The Mohawk Nations and the Canadian Government;
• The Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Israel;
• The Basque population and the State of Spain; and,
• The Catholic population in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The groups are to do research to find out why these groups are unhappy with the situation in their nation.

• They are to prepare submissions to the United Nations either seeking or opposing the involvement (intervention) of the UN in the affairs of the particular nation.

Step Two

The groups representing the dissenting groups will present their petitions to the United Nations.

• The groups representing the nations where the dissenting groups live would also present their position regarding the dissenting group and the need for UN intervention.

• The opposing groups must be prepared to justify their positions to the United Nations.

The United Nations group will make a decision about whether the UN should intervene in the particular dispute.

Step Three

The class can discuss the various decisions as to when foreign intervention should or should not occur.

• It can attempt to develop criteria by that such decisions should be made.