Teacher Resources

Free Lesson Plans

Multiple Human Rights Focus 

• Amnesty International has a variety of educational resources available.
• Amnesty International – United States  selection of film curriculum guides for Human Rights Education.
• Centre for Education, Law & Society Provides a number of lesson plans on rights in Canada
• CyberDodo A cartoon series for younger students featuring CyberDodo, a universal ambassador of the Environment (season 1) and the Rights of the Child (season 2). In season 2 (40 episodes), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has assigned CyberDodo the mission to inform and educate on the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Topics include child trafficking, abuse, refugees, obesity, drugs, child abduction, famine, torture, and more.
• Deal.org Toolkits and Presentations - Relationship Safety, Gangs, Bullying  Grade-specific interactive presentations, activities, icebreakers and fact sheets on relationship safety, youth gangs and bullying for students of all ages.
• Developing a Global Perspective Lessons from grade 1 to 12 on a variety of issues
• Equitas - International Centre for Human Rights education- Play IT Fair Toolkit A user-friendly resource, available in English and French, which integrates informal human rights education and multicultural training into summer camp programming for children aged 6-12. Topics include: human rights, inclusion, anti-discrimination, intercultural relations and peaceful conflict resolution. Ideas for games and activities for campers are provided, as well as useful information for staff.
• Free the Children A resource guide for the school year that fits into Ontario's curriculum and offers support for teaching secondary students about children's rights. The guide provides logistical information, activity ideas and lesson plans. Topics include: education, health, poverty, sustainable development, global citizenship and social issues. Classes are encouraged to participate in the Adopt a Village, Change the World program. Teachers can sign up to receive weekly lesson plans that accompany Craig and Marc Kielburger's column in the Toronto Star / Vancouver Sun.
• Human Rights Here and Now Human Rights Educator’s Network's guide to Human Rights Education for elementary through high school students with lesson plans.
• The United Nations Cyber School Bus has resources for students aged 5-18.
• The United Nations Association of Canada (UNAC)
• UNHCR-ABC: Teaching Human Rights
• UNICEF selection of educational resources.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Youth for Human Rights short videos and lesson plans on each of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• Amnesty International - United States 

 Understanding your Rights (The Rights of the Child)

• Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children Resources on children's rights, including: a series of booklets on the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Canada for people who work for or with children; a curriculum resource on Children's Rights and Global Citizenship for Grade 11/12 students; and an information guide on children's rights in Canada.
• The Educators Network - Child Rights Lesson Plans Lesson plans and activities for students in Grades 6-12 based on six core questions relating to child rights, such as: “How have children's roles and rights changed over time?” and “How can students become advocates for their peers?”. The activities include group brainstorming, discussion, reading and research.
• Australian Human Rights Commission A series of activities on children's rights aimed at helping secondary students to: understand the difference between rights and wants; research important aspects of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Diversity

• Canadian Center for Diversity A film library (mainly DVDs) for teachers looking to borrow films on a range of topics, including different religions, the Holocaust, mental illness, prejudice, racism, diversity, homophobia, and more. Films are categorized by title and topic, and a brief description of each film is provided along with its rating (G, PG, R).
• Canada's National History Society - Discover Your Community Lesson plans targeted at students in different Grades on themes in Canadian history such as the environment, First Nations, French Canada, national politics, immigration and women. Aims to make students more aware and appreciative of Canadian heritage.
• Teaching Tolerance - A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Centre - Classroom Activities and Kits Easy-to-use teaching tools that can be implemented directly or adapted for specific classroom needs. Users can search for activities by grade, academic subject and tolerance topic (e.g., race, gender, health, etc.). Magazines, storybooks and activity kits are also available for teachers, librarians and others in the education community.

Voting 

Elections Canada Offers elementary, secondary and ESL teachers free educational resources, tools, activities, information and links.

Human Rights Declarations and Conventions

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• French language version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Child Friendly Versions of the United National Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• The Manitoba Human Rights Code
• The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
• The Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
• The Declaration of Alma-Ata which expressed the urgent action necessary to promote the health and well-being of global citizens.

Professional Development

• The Human Rights Education Handbook By Nancy Flowers of the Human Rights Resource Center.  A complete handbook to teaching human rights, from ideas and resources for teaching elementary students to workshops for adults.
• Human Rights Internet - A Canadian site with recommendations for teachers, such as textbooks and other resources related to human rights education.
• The People's Movement for Human Rights Education - Dedicated to human rights learning for social and economic change.  Provides excellent explanations of a variety of human rights issues, including: the aged, children, development, disability, discrimination, education, environment, ethnicity, food, health, housing, indigenous peoples, livelihood and land, minorities, peace and disarmament, poverty, race, refugees, religion, sexual orientation, women, work and workers.  Good starting point for teachers looking to explore one or more of these issues.
• The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights supports the World Program for Human Rights Education.
• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) has Four Pillars of Learning, learning to do, learning to know, learning to live together and learning to be. For more information on UNESCO’s Task Force for education in the 21st century see: (Link)

Aboriginal Resources

• The Manitoba Education document entitled “Integrating Aboriginal Perspectives into Curricula”.
• The Assembly of First Nations Call to Action for Educators
• The Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba is a neutral body, created through a partnership between the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) and Canada with a mandate to strengthen, rebuild and enhance the Treaty relationship and mutual respect as envisaged by the Treaty Parties. They have a speaker’s bureau which will provide information about Manitoba treaties.
• The Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Center is a resource to help First Nations improve education for all learners to achieve.
• The Manitoba Indigenous Cultural Education Center is a provincial, non-profit, charitable and education center that works to promote an awareness and understanding of First Nation culture to all Manitobans. They have a library and community connection program.
• The First Nations Voice newspaper of Manitoba.
• United Nations Youth Unit-Indigenous Children and Youth Leaflet

Mathematics

• Math that Matters by David Stocker is a math book which incorporates math and social justice issues. It is available at a cost at this website.
• Radical Math is a resource for teachers interested in teaching math and social justice. There are many lesson plans available on this website.
• Statistics Canada provides resources to teach about math and social justice.

Poverty

• Amnesty International Poverty Video
• Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba State of the Inner City 2009 It Takes All Day To Be Poor - This report is available free of charge from the CCPA website at (Link)
• Social Planning Council of Winnipeg 2009 report
• Winnipeg Harvest has a number of resources that include poverty and hunger statistics that can be used to create math lesson plans.

Health

• An Economic Tsunami; The Cost of Diabetes in Canada. A 2009 Report from the Canadian Diabetes Association. Retrieved on December 16, 2009 from: (Link)
• Diabetes Report 2005 Retrieved on December 9, 2009 from: (Link)

Links from this website to other websites are presented as a convenience to users. The Manitoba Association of Rights and Liberties does not accept any responsibility for the content found at these websites.