Intro Quiz: Is the conflict in Syria a children’s rights issue?

Video: Is the conflict in Syria a children’s rights issue?

﻿Hi, and welcome to lesson three. And today, we are going to continue learning about kind of why people move around the world. And we're going to look at the conflict in Syria, and whether the conflict in Syria is a children's rights issue and what that means, for people moving around the world, on the issue of migration. Okay, so before we start the lesson, we're just going to take a minute to kind of think about what the lesson is going to be about. So we're going to be talking about war today, for some people, that might be a sensitive issue. It might be that you've got personal experience of it. So just take a minute to think about if you are able to complete the lesson and if you are, brilliant, kind of not, kind of please do kind of exit it now. Or you might want to make sure kind of you're with someone who you can get some support from if you need it, kind of like draw on during the lesson. Okay, so for today's lesson, you might want to grab your notes kind of from last time, you need a pen and some paper and a different coloured pen to maybe do some self assessment and make sure you're somewhere quiet, so you can focus on the lesson. If you need to kind of, you need to grab any equipment or if you need to move, pause the video and do that. Okay, so we are going to look at three things in today's lesson. We're going to look at what the Syrian conflict is, so we're going to get some background and kind of make sure you understand why it started. We are going to look at children's rights and how they link to Syria and the topic of migration. And then we're going to explore the question of are, kind of, are the children of Syria having their rights protected? So kind of the first part of the lesson, we're just going to get some background information on the Syrian conflict. So what is the Syrian conflict? So there are a range of reasons why the conflict in Syria began. It's a very complicated kind of issue and there were lots of kind of issues that come together to make the conflict even worse kind of than it already is. But kind of, you can trace the conflict back to March, 2011, kind of when the citizens of Syria, inspired by events elsewhere in the Middle East, I'm going to call the Arab Spring and the Arab Spring is when kind of some countries in the Middle East started to protest about a government and the way the government is treating them. And this happened in Syria, and the people began to protest about the way they were being treated by the government. Kind of, Syria is led by a man called Bashar al-Assad and those who oppose his rule want a more democratic and rights respecting country. So kind of they believe that their rights are not being respected in the country. And there are claims that Assad's government restrict the rights of citizens, so he just didn't allow them to enjoy the rights that they should have, so for example kind of taking part in the democratic process and expressing their opinions, et cetera. And kind of, kind of all the time, the conflict was started off, has now morphed into something called a civil war. And a civil war is a war or conflict between people within a country, okay, so it's kind of, so it's civil. Many cities have been destroyed and many people have lost their lives and as it spread all over Syria, and then other people, other outside influences have got involved in the conflict, and so have a number of extremist groups. And it's impossible to know how many people have lost their lives, but United Nations, um, placed a figure somewhere in excess of 400,000, and the United nation estimate that those who are being displaced by the conflict is around 6 million. So if we think back to lesson one, we know that kind of Syria is kind of a source country for kind of migrants. We know it's the highest source country for migrants at the moment, and that's because of the war. And the conflict is still ongoing, even today. So what we have to do is think about what I just said, and see if you can answer the following questions. So the conflict in Syria began in? So can, so can you finish it off. And the conflict began in response to? Can you kind of finish that of? Syria is run by? The initial conflict has developed into a what? And the conflict is still what? So just finish those parts using the information you have just learned. So, please pause the video now to complete your task. Okay, so hopefully you've got these answers. The conflict in Syria began in 2011. The conflict began in response to protests about the government. Kind of Syria, is run by Bashar al-Assad. The, kind of, initial conflict has developed into a civil war. And the conflict is still ongoing in Syria. Okay, so the next bit of the lesson, we are going to explore, what are children's rights? Now, a right at its most simplest level, is something which, something which somebody is entitled to. So, something kind of somebody should have. Um, and there are many sets of rights, which kind of exist, and these are often protected by law. Now, if you've not come across the idea of rights before, in your Citizenship lessons, um, you may want to go and have a look at the different curriculum available kind of on the old website and, and, um, just kind of, and just kind of get some basic ideas about what rights mean. But, for the purposes of this lesson, if you're okay with, you're okay with understanding a right is something that someone entitles to, then you will be okay. And children have their own set of rights. Okay, so there's a piece of legislation, that give children their own sets of rights, and this is called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child or the UNCRC as is sometimes known as, and this gives children 54 different rights. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you some rights. So kind of, so kind of some things that kind of children should be entitled to, and what I want you to do is if you think that right would be denied, so kind of, it's kind of stopped by or restricted by, or because of war, I want you to jot them down in a list. Okay, so those which are directly denied or restricted by or because of war. Write a list as I go through. Okay, and you can pause the video, whenever you need to, if you want to copy it down. So, right number one, the right to life. Is the right to life directly denied or taken away because of war? Okay, is the right to not be separated from your parents, denied, taken away because of war? Is drug abuse, so to be free from drug abuse, to live a life free of drug abuse, denied or directly impacted by war? Well, kind of about the right to health, is that denied or restricted because of war? The juvenile justice system, so, having a special way within the justice system, so within the law, a kind of legal system to deal with children, is that denied or restricted directly because of war? And the right to an education? Is that one denied or restricted because of war? Children having knowledge of their rights, so does the kind of informing of children of their rights, is that denied or restricted because of war? The right to an adequate standard of living, so housing, food, et cetera, so kind of having money to live, having a, you know, a decent amount food, is that denied or restricted because of war? The right to access information from the media, is that one denied or restricted by war? Okay, so if you've not quite finished, so you need to go back and kind of look at them, kind of just kind of rewind the video. If you have, here are some answers. So directly restricted and denied rights, so, so we're thinking about ones what are directly impacted because of war. The right to life, so kind of obviously, your life can be taken away if you are caught up in war. Or kind of some countries illegally use child soldiers, and if they, you know, kind of get their life taken away because they're fighting, then that kind of denies their right to life? Separation from parents, so if you lose your parents, either because they die because of war or you get separated, and that is restricting that. The right to health, so hospitals might, might be destroyed or they might be kind of, kind of, kind of, kind of their capacity might be heavily reduced. The right to education, so again, schools could be destroyed, kind of teachers could be kind of taken away from teaching. The right to an adequate standard of living, so again, houses, food sources are all, could potentially all be destroyed during war. The right to access information for media, again, so if your country's infrastructure, so the things, which allow your country to function are damaged, so your kind of, kind of electricity, TV channels, et cetera, all might restrict your access to information from the media. So what's the link then, between war on migration? So, can you think back to lesson one? Can you remember the definition of a push factor? So hopefully, you got, it's so kind of hopefully, can you gotten, something which forces someone to leave their place of usual residence. Okay and war, I hope you would agree is indeed a push factor and access and enjoyment of basic rights kind of, kind of is a factor, which forces people to leave their usual country of residence. So war forces people to migrate, okay, kind of, whether that be across borders or within borders, war forces people to move to try and escape the damage and destruction of war, and the moment they leave, they become internally displaced asylum seekers or refugees. Now this depends on where they're going, if they're granted permission, et cetera, so all the things you looked at in lesson one. Due to Syrian conflict, a number of surrounding countries of Turkey and Jordan, so if you're not sure where Syria is on the map, I don't know, have a look at a map and just, and just have a look, so kind of Turkey and Jordan, are kind of bordering countries, and these have accepted kind of Syrian citizens as asylum seekers, and many have kind of been granted refugee status. So they've been given legal permission to stay in the country. Kind of, however, as you can probably imagine, it's quite difficult to support these, support these kind of, kind of refugees and asylum seekers, because of the sheer number, because of how damaging a war is. So kind of some refugees live within the local communities, so kind of, sort of housed in kind of housing, they kind of go, the children get to go to school, kind of, can people get jobs. And sadly though, that isn't possible for everyone, sheerly because there are too many kind of refugees trying to escape the war. Non-government or kind of organisations like charities, like, you know, Oxfam, Save the Children and Red Cross, so organisations, which are not working for the government, an intergovernmental organisation, so people like the United nations have tried to work together with kind of governments to create temporary and permanent accommodation for those who need it, so those seeking asylum, those who are refugees and those who become internally displaced. So they might end up at a refugee camp, and here are some examples of refugee camps in Jordan, and you can see kind of from picture, kind of its sheer size. It's just huge, they live in tents. But you know, they try and have as normal life as possible, you know, they've got some shops, the people are chatting, they got some bikes. So, so they do try to replicate life as normal as it can, but obviously I'm sure, you can imagine, it's going to be quite difficult to do that. So, we're now going to explore the third, um, kind of question we have today, and that is, to what extent, are kind of the rights of children, kind of child refugees protected by the UNCRC? So the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children, Child. So, what I'm going to ask you to do, is I'm going to ask you to access the worksheets found within the lesson, so you're going to have to exit, exit, exit the video and kind of follow the instructions. I'm kind of giving you access to the worksheet. On the worksheet, you will find a list, or two lists of some evidence, okay? And this evidence is to do with kind of things put in place to support, kind of, kind, the Syrian, the children, who are leaving Sylvia and have been granted refugee status. And the question you are trying to answer is to what extent can the rights of the child, child refugee be protected by the UNCRC, okay? So let's have a look, kind of, kind of look at an example. So this is a piece of information on the worksheet, okay? Um Ashraf's family come together to break their fast by sharing a meal in their tent in Jordan. Kind of remarks, it is unlike Syria, but all that matters is that we are together and safe. Okay? So by being able to come together and share a meal, and break their fast, kind of in a tent, is that, giving the right, or is that denying a right, okay? So on the one hand, you can say, well, that's protecting their rights because it's allowing them to meet their basic needs, okay? Then, because they're getting food, and they're being with their family. Well, you might also say, well kind of, it depends actually, because how much of the family has made it out of Syria, okay, so it's, however, they can only be together as a family, if they all made it out of Syria as a family, and you have to decide, kind of, kind of using, using the other piece of information, if the rights of children are protected by the UNCRC or not. Okay? So you're going to need to pause the video now, access the worksheet and complete the task. Okay, so hopefully your sheet looks a little bit like my sheet, which is kind of there. You could have done a mind map or you could have done it in any way that you wanted to. So let's go through some answers, okay, so. You got told that kind of education is difficult to access, Okay, and only a very small proportion of children go to school and many schools have been destroyed in Syria. Suppose, kind of so in that regard, kind of education, isn't being protected, and their rights aren't being protected because they're not allowed this access to education, which is a right given to children by the UNCRC, as we discussed before. And often, kind of language barrier is an issue, okay, so different languages they use in different schools. And this means children cannot quite understand lessons that they're being taught. The standard of living is often low, this is due to the lack of suitable structures and poor infrastructure. Okay, so you might say that the right to protection, the right for an adequate standard of living is not being protected, but then on the flip side, kind of improvements are being made all the time, refugee camps being developed, houses are being found, kind of, kind of for communities. So it's a little bit of both. But basic needs are being met, maybe donations allow for food to be brought, washing and hygiene facilities are available, so people are able to look after their basic needs, the right to kind of, basic needs are being met, because they can go shopping to buy some food. And they do have the facilities to wash and, you know, kind of make sure they keep clean, which is really important. However, again, on the flip side, some of the, kind of, some of the facilities are very, very poor, they're overcrowded, some things like toilets, for example, are shared by a lot of people and kind of sometimes, they're not as clean as they perhaps could be. Kind of separation is problematic, camps are vast areas, and it's not always possible to place families together. So if you remember from the picture before, you, kind of, we, we looked up how big camps are, and obviously families can only be put where there's space, and that might mean there's a lasting kind of distance between families because they're not being kept together. It also is possible that kind of, kind of, sort of, the family might get, kind of get one at a camp while kind of other members of the family might be taken to a different kind of accommodation elsewhere. So although, you know, they're getting their need and their right for shelter, it's not always, it's not always the idea that kind of families are kept together. Often children and parents are kind of kept together where possible. Kind of however, it can happen because, you know, kind of, when it's possible children and families put together. And of course, the families have to leave Syria, as well, together to be kind of put together. But health needs are being met because there is access to health care and there is a continual programme of training to improve basic hygiene awareness. So, so there are doctors, there are nurses, so the access to health is being met. However it is, it does need improvement, more, more kind of more investment needs to be made to build the amount of hospitals and medical staff available to children and refugees. Access to information is going to be difficult, so that right isn't always met, because sometimes it's impossible to meet. For example, there's going to be a lack of electricity, so kind of, kind of infrastructure, and again, it might be a language barrier, you know, if you get a newspaper, it might not be printed in the right language, et cetera. So, kind of overall then, what do we think? To what extent, are the rights of child refugees protected by the UNCRC? Do you think, you know, kind of those child refugees fleeing from the war in Syria, are having their rights protected or not? Now, you don't need to write this down, but you kind of if you want to, you can kind of, you can kind of do a little summary paragraph, but there's no need to, just have a think and kind of say, well, yes or no. So that brings the lesson to an end, okay, and hopefully, you can now give some, some more information about Syrian conflict, which perhaps you couldn't do before the lesson. You can now have some idea about what children's rights are, and how children's rights are linked to Syria and migration. And you can also, also explain with some evidence about if children's rights are being protected, during the Syrian conflict or not. So, then that brings today's lesson to an end. I hope you learned some kind of new information. Please don't forget to do the quiz after you exit, exit the lesson. And I thank you very much, have a good day and hopefully kind of see you again for the next one.

Worksheet: Is the conflict in Syria a children’s rights issue?

Exit Quiz: Is the conflict in Syria a children’s rights issue?

Completed: Is the conflict in Syria a children’s rights issue?

This lesson will explore the situation in Syria and to what extent the rights of children are being enjoyed or denied. This lesson covers the war in Syria. If this is a sensitive topic to you, we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

Citizenship

Is the conflict in Syria a children’s rights issue?

Introductory Quiz

Video

Worksheet

Final Quiz

Lesson Complete