The 121 countries of the Non-Aligned Movement agree on one thing: It is time to assert their place in a divided world. A Risk game board of the world with cracks in it. (Illustration by News Decoder) This article was produced exclusively for News Decoder’s global...
Vladimir Putin has held power in Russia since before the turn of the millennium. Political opponents haven’t had a chance against him. Is that still true? Yekaterina Duntsova, second right, submits her documents as a presidential candidate for the upcoming...
There is an evolving global consensus that some acts of violence in warfare are not acceptable. But how in the world can we enforce that? Headquarters of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. This article was produced exclusively for News...
Headlines about today’s international conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine paint atrocious pictures of war crimes and violent attacks. Are these actions sanctioned in the eyes of international humanitarian law? Correspondent and political science professor Daniel Warner of the Graduate Institute in Geneva gives an overview.
Exercise: Using this summary document from the Red Cross, print out 30-40 articles from the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols. Cut each article out separately. Then, prepare a large board/poster for sorting and pasting the articles, divided into four sections: civilians, prisoners of war, wounded/sick, critical infrastructure. Have students read through each article and sort them within the four categories. As they learn more about the Conventions, you may consider bringing in current headlines to evaluate whether or not today’s conflicts have abided by these international humanitarian laws. Note: Consider creating 4-5 sets of article texts and sorting posters if you have a large class, or create a digital version via Google Slides.
For 50 years the folks who travel into space have cooperated above the borders that divide those on land. But as we find space not so empty will lines be drawn? Astronaut Donald K. Slayton and cosmonaut Aleksey A. Leonov are seen together in the Soyuz Orbital Module...
Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the UN for failing to stop Russia’s invasion. But to do more would mean changing how the United Nations works. Ukraine’s president Zelensky criticizes the United Nations for not doing enough to stop the war, during...
ND photojournalist Enrique Shore takes us to the 78th UN General Assembly in his piece covering Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech condemning Russia’s invasion of his country. Is holding Russia accountable for its “unprovoked aggression” possible given the current United Nations structure?
Exercise: Read the article with your class, then have students analyze this political cartoon (symbolism, captions, dialogue, etc.). What parallels can students draw between the information in the article and the symbols in the political cartoon? How likely is reform of the current UN structure? Students can then create their own political cartoons depicting the structural tensions detailed in the article.