Monday, May 10. 2021

Today's classes are:

9:15 - 11:50 B Block Human Geography

12:30 - 3:05 C Block Legal Studies

B Block Human Geography - Today we'll examine the Key Issue "Why Does Development Vary by Gender"? From the UN HDI GII...

"Gender inequality remains a major barrier to human development. Girls and women have made major strides since 1990, but they have not yet gained gender equity. The disadvantages facing women and girls are a major source of inequality. All too often, women and girls are discriminated against in health, education, political representation, labour market, etc. with negative consequences for development of their capabilities and their freedom of choice".

UNICEF USA: Towards Gender Equality from UNICEF USA on Vimeo.

The GII measures gender inequalities in three important aspects of human development:

1. Reproductive health; measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates;
2. Empowerment; measured by proportion of parliamentary seats occupied by females and proportion of adult females and males aged 25 years and older with at least some secondary education and
3. Economic status; expressed as labour market participation and measured by labour force participation rate of female and male populations aged 15 years and older.

And from the World Bank:

Better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at a later age, and enable better health care and education for their children, should they choose to become mothers. All these factors combined can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty. According to UNESCO estimates, 130 million girls between the age of 6 and 17 are out of school and 15 million girls of primary-school age—half of them in sub-Saharan Africa— will never enter a classroom. Poverty remains the most important factor for determining whether a girl can access an education. Studies consistently reinforce that girls who face multiple disadvantages — such as low family income, living in remote or underserved locations, disability or belonging to a minority ethno-linguistic group — are farthest behind in terms of access to and completion of education.

And from the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020:

• The top country for gender parity remained Iceland (for the 11th year running).
• The most-improved countries were Albania, Ethiopia, Mali, Mexico and Spain.
• Of the 149 countries ranked, 101 improved their scores on the 2019 index (this excludes the five new countries that have joined the ranking this year).
• A further 48 saw their performance unchanged, while the top 10th percentile saw their scores improve more than 3.3% year-on-year.
• A total of 35 countries have achieved gender parity in education.
• In healthcare, 48 countries have achieved near-parity and 71 have closed at least 97% of the gap.

HOWEVER

• Globally, gender parity stands at 68.6% and the bottom 10 countries have closed just 40% of the gender gap.
• Political empowerment scores are poor. In terms of parliamentary representation, globally women have secured just 25% of available positions, a figure that slips to 21% at a ministerial level. At this level, there are nine where they have no representation.
• In the past 50 years, 85 states have had no female head of state.
• In terms of economic participation, the gender gap will take 257 years to close (compared to 202 years in the 2019 report).
• Globally, only 55% of women (aged 15-64) are engaged in the labour market as opposed to 78% of men.
• There are 72 countries where women are barred from opening bank accounts or obtaining credit.
• There is no country where men spend the same amount of time on unpaid work as women. In countries where the ratio is lowest, it is still 2:1.

While looking deeper into the topic, I'll have you work on three questions for me:

1. Based on the world maps included in Key Issue 2, which two of the nine world regions appear to have the highest levels of inequality? Do these two regions have high or low HDIs?
2. What has been the trend in gender inequality since the 1990s?
3. Review the major economic, social, and demographic characteristics that contribute to a country’s level of development. Which indicators can vary significantly by gender within countries and between countries at various levels of development? Why?

And Friday's questions as well:

1. If you were to create an index of development, what indicators would you use, and why (look at the UN HDI Indicators for Canada in the week 2 booklet)? How would you weigh each indicator? Could your index be used around the world, or would it be mostly relevant to our society?
2. The HDI is used to measure development at a whole-country level. Is it adequate to measure development within a country? Why or why not? (Another way of thinking about this: Are there minority groups that may be “glossed over” by the HDI?

C Block Legal Studies - After a bit of time to finish up Friday's work, we will venture off to the learning commons/library to begin work on our introductory unit major assignment that comes from the Toronto District School Board:

Human rights violations are a daily occurrence throughout the world. These violations take place in both the North and the South and affect the civil, economic, political, cultural, social, and equality rights of human beings. These violations are in direct opposition to the universal and inalienable rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Fortunately, organizations around the world work on protecting these rights, partly through education and awareness campaigns

Artists, both visual artists and musicians, often comment on human rights issues through their artwork. Assume the role of the Media Outreach Coordinator for a particular human rights organization (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, etc.) and research a contemporary case of human rights violations somewhere in the world. Based on your research, create a Human Rights Campaign Poster that educates the greater public about the human rights violations and urges them to take action to end the abuse.

Remember...

• Human rights are the basic standards human beings need to live life with freedom and dignity. Human rights include fundamental civil and political rights, such as the right to free speech, to freedom of religion, and the right to participate in government. Human rights also include essential economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to education, to work, and to healthcare.
  
• Human rights are the rights that all people have simply because they are human beings. Each of these rights are inalienable; they cannot be denied or taken away from any individual. They are also indivisible; all human rights are equally important and one right cannot be taken away because it is said to be less important than another.
  
• Finally, human rights are interdependent, all human rights are connected and you cannot guarantee one right without ensuring that other rights are protected.

So your task is to...

1. Choose a contemporary case of human rights violations, as well as an organization that is working on ending the abuse.

2. Research your case study using the following websites: Amnesty International (click on campaigns); Human Rights Watch (click on Global Issues); Oneworld (click on In Depth then Human Rights); United for Human Rights; Youth For Human Rights or the BBC "I Have a Right to..." site and complete the following questions to help with your poster Case Study:

What is happening? Where is it taking place? What rights are being violated? Who is having their rights violated? Why are their rights being violated?

3. Create a visually appealing Human Rights Campaign Poster that addresses the human rights violation by incorporating the key information from the questions in point 2 above (in point form) as well as pictures, symbols, and colours. Remember, your poster should seek to draw the attention of the public through the balanced combination of text and visuals in a creative, yet educational manner!

Some examples of Human Rights posters...

 

Remember you need to create a visually appealing Human Rights Campaign Poster that addresses the human rights violation by incorporating key information (What is happening? Where is it taking place? What rights are being violated? Who is having their rights violated? Why are their rights being violated?) as well as pictures, symbols, and colours. Your poster should seek to draw the attention of the public through the balanced combination of text and visuals in a creative, yet educational manner!
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Illustrated Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

So, here's an example of a contemporary Human Rights issue...

*warning...there is potty mouth, so please be aware and watch with care*

Online Examples of Human Rights Posters:
"Women's Rights Are Human Rights" poster exhibition in Boston
The City College of New York’s Human Rights Forum
Stand Up 4 Human Rights
Poster For Tomorrow

This Friday (May 15th) is your introductory unit final test in Law. The unit test will cover the first three chapters of the All About Law text and will have: 15 True/False questions; 15 Multiple Choice questions; 15 Matching questions; and 3 Short Answer questions. You should be fluent in the following topics:

Substantive and Procedural Law

Divisions of Public and Private Law (Criminal, Constitutional and Administrative for Public and Tort, Family, Contract, Property and Labour for Private)

Case Law (precedent) and Statute Law

Understanding Case Citations (R v. Person....Person v. Person)

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Section 1 Reasonable Limits, Section 2 Fundamental Freedoms, Section 6 Mobility Rights, Sections 7-14 Legal Rights, Section 15 Equality Rights and Section 33 Notwithstanding Clause)

Charter changes (Read in, Read down and Strike down) and Solutions (Remedies)

Discrimination and Human Rights

Human Rights issues for women (pay equity, employment equity, unintentional or adverse effect discrimination - poisoned work environments)

Human Rights issues for Canada's Indigenous populations (Calder and Delgamuukw decisions)