Human rights

5: Right to intervention

Required Resources

• Slides 28-31

Delivery

• Present Slides 28-30 to update students on the situation in the Balkans today.
• Throughout this lesson, students should refer to Student Worksheet 2 which contains a map of the Balkans region. This will aid understanding of the complex conflict.
• Using the information from the previous task, students should consider the question on Slide 31: 'From a human rights perspective (taking into account the human rights of its own citizens and the wider international community), does the UK have the right to become involved in the conflicts of other countries?' You could split the discussion into two: peace-keeping work e.g. Sierra Leone and military force e.g. Iraq.
• Record students' arguments for and against becoming involved. Students should support each argument with reasons, drawing on the inferences and analyses from previous tasks. Students will be better informed for this debate if the lesson on 'International conflict and cooperation' has been completed in advance.
• Students consider onto which side of the argument they fall. If you have completed the 'Conflict and cooperation' lesson plan then you should ask students if their views have altered or been affected since the previous class.
• Time permitting, students should be encouraged to discuss and debate their views and opinions as there is no right or wrong answer. However, if time is a constraint then this Episode could be completed more thoroughly in a separate lesson.