APRIL 7: WORLD HEALTH DAY

This year, the theme for World Health Day is "Healthy Environments for Children." Healthy Environments for Children is a focus of the United Nations efforts in sustainable development. By ensuring that our children are growing in healthy conditions and becoming healthy productive adults, we can guarantee continuous life on earth.

Environmental factors are crucial for children's health. Unfortunately, in many countries of the world, polluted air, lack of drinking water and chemically contaminated foods are a part of everyday life. Children are most vulnerable to the environment, and it is for this reason that every year approximately 4 million children die because of illnesses exaggerated by poor environments.

Today, environmental hazards are multiplying, without geographical borders. They are spreading across the globe at a steadily increasing rate. A recent example is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), an outbreak currently threatening the lives of people in many different countries, including Canada.

In keeping with World Health Day, and to make our children's lives healthier, we need to strive to provide healthy environments for them in the home, at school, and in our neighbourhoods. Providing safe and adequate food, proper hygiene and essential medical treatment are all vital for ensuring their continued growth.

Teachers:

Visit the World Health Organization's (WHO) Website: http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2003/en/

WHO's Brochure: http://www.who.int/peh/ceh/HECI_brochure.pdf

Health Canada's site on Safe, Healthy Environments: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dca-dea/allchildren_touslesenfants/she_main_e.html

- Projects and activities for the classroom! http://www.accessexcellence.org/HHQ/HAE/index.html

APRIL 23: WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY

"Ever since the invention of printing, books have been the medium of choice, providing an opening onto the imaginative world of others and enabling us to enrich ourselves with their creativity." - Federico Mayor

April 23 is a symbolic date for world literature. On this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. This day also commemorates the birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. Because of the significance of these people, World Book and Copyright Day was chosen for this day.

By celebrating throughout the world, United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization UNESCO) seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. It encourages everyone, particularly young people, to pay tribute to books and authors. Books and literature have always been powerful tools in learning and preserving knowledge and this day allows us to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.

Celebrate the world of books and read a book today!

Teachers:

Read more about World Book and Copyright Day http://portal.unesco.org/culture/ev.php?URL_ID=5125&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1048723835

Visit the UN's site at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library: http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/book/

Tips on celebrating World Book Day in the classroom! http://www.canadabookday.com/schools.asp

Students:

Enter the Bookmark Design Contest for a chance for you and your school to win great prizes! (deadline May 9, 2003) - http://www.canadabookday.com/contests.asp

THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL

The United Nations Security Council has primary responsibility for maintaining peace and security in the world. When an international dispute leads to fighting, the Council's first concern is to bring it to an end as soon as possible.

The Security Council sends United Nations peacekeeping forces to help reduce tensions in troubled areas, keep opposing forces apart and create conditions of calm in which peaceful settlements may be sought. The Council may decide on enforcement measures, economic sanctions (such as trade embargoes) or collective military action.

The five permanent members on the Security Council are France, Russia, China, the United States and the United Kingdom. Ten other countries are members on a two-year rotating basis. The current term members are Germany, Guinea, Mexico, Pakistan, Spain, the Syrian Arab Republic, Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon and Chile.

Each Council member has one vote. Decisions on important issues require nine votes, including the concurring votes of all five permanent members. If one of the permanent member opposes, the resolution cannot pass. This is the rule of "great Power unanimity", often referred to as the "veto" power.

Teachers:

Staging a model Security Council in your classroom would allow students to develop and practice skills in researching, organizing, writing, debating, negotiating, and compromising. Students could come up with a resolution on the current war in Iraq, while representing the positions of the member countries. Find out everything you need to know to stage a model Security Council here: http://www.unac.org/mun/sourcebook/sourcebook_5.html

Students:

Learn more about the security council: http://www.un.org/Overview/Organs/sc.html

Find out more about model United Nations in Canada, including Security Councils, here: http://www.unac.org/mun/index_en.html

Students, read the UN's briefing paper for students on preventing conflicts: http://www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/briefing/conflicts/index.htm

IS THE WAR ON IRAQ LEGAL?

International law is based on principles and criteria, treaties, conventions, court cases and the UN Charter. These govern the circumstances under which countries can legally go to war.

Many lawyers say that the US-led invasion of Iraq violates the basic rules of the United Nations Charter. The Charter requires that countries exhaust all peaceful means of maintaining global security before taking military action. The Security Council must authorize all legitimate uses of force for the actions to be considered legal under international law. It permits the use of force in self-defense only in response to actual or imminent attack.

By issuing an ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave the country or face attack, the United States says that it was asserting its right to self-defense, as well as its intention to enforce previous Security Council resolutions - particularly resolution 1441 - which called for Iraq to disarm. The United States attempt to expand the concept of self-defense to authorize preventive attacks against countries is, they say, based on the potential of future threats.

Some international lawyers claim that the previous resolutions gave the United States adequate legal right to wage war. They say that precedent for this was established when the United States and their allies launched an air campaign against Serbia in 1999 without Security Council authorization.

Students:

Read resolution 1441 here: http://daccess-ods.un.org/TMP/4503992.html

Check out the United Nations Charter (can you find the relevant sections?) http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/

Explore in more detail arguments surrounding the legality of this war http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/lawindex.htm

Read the UN's briefing paper for students on international law http://www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/briefing/law/index.htm

Discussion Question:

Do you think the war on Iraq is legal? What other factors should be considered in this case?

FUN FACTOIDS

Since 1495, no 25-year period has been without war.

There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.

In 1997, the US maintained 13,750 nuclear warheads, 5,546 of them on ballistic missiles.

In 1998, the US spent more than $35 billion on its nuclear weapons programme.

In 1997, the US exported $15,6 billion in arms to developing countries, 54% of which went to non-democratic regimes.

Global spending on defense totals more than $700 billion. Global spending on education is less than $100 billion.

Chemical and biological warfare have been used long before World War 1. During the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC, Spartans used sulphur and pitch to overcome the enemy. During ancient and medieval times, soldiers sometimes threw bodies of plague victims over the walls of besieged cities, or into water wells. During the French and Indian wars in North America (1689-1763), blankets used by smallpox victims were given to American Indians in the hope they would carry the disease.

QUOTABLE QUOTES

Peace, like charity, begins at home. --Franklin D. Roosevelt

One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.-- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.