Stand Up Activity 5 - Intervention

IN

V R E T

12 months. 6 activities.

1 global movement.

T N E

junior branch

N IO

Introduction The fifth Stand Up activity makes you think about conflicts on a larger scale. Today’s world is filled with war, and it seems no one can avoid their consequences. In the activity, participants will start by reflecting on what kinds of conflicts they think they should intervene in. At first it will be personal and easily relatable, but they will soon be forced to make on the spot decisions about very complicated situations with major consequences...

Activity’s Goal:

Allowing individuals to explore the effect of actions and interventions when in a conflict situation, and what consequences they might have on the resolution of conflict.

A S K

Attitudes

• Willingness to “agree to disagree” • Willingness to take a stand on difficult topics

Skills

• Ability to see issues from several perspectives • Ability to identify different alternatives to intervention

Knowledge

• Knowledge of what an intervention is • Knowledge of different global conflicts

The Activity Estimated time: 90-120+ minutes Maximum number of participants: 80

Materials

• Four papers with the phrases: –– (1) Yes –– (2) Yes, but...

–– (3) No –– (4) No, but...

Preparations

To prepare for this activity you should do the following: • Clear the room, so that it’s possible to walk around.

• Have the questions readily available (either printed, on your phone, in a slideshow, etc.)

• Put one paper up on each corner of the room (Yes; Yes, but...; No; No, but… papers)

Do: 30-70 minutes • Have all participants stand in the middle of the room.

• Explain that you will read questions, and that they will then go to one part of the room depending on their answer.

• Explain that the four corners of the room are as follows: (1) yes (2) yes, but... (3) no (4) no, but..., and that for each question they must choose an answer to the question you (as facilitator) will read. There is no standing in the middle allowed!

The reason for these 4 corners, rather than a line or simply two options is so that people can and must make a decision about where they stand, perhaps pushing them out of their comfort zone. The “but” in two of the options is so that people who are leaning towards one side, but not completely sure, can make a decision and still feel comfortable with it.

• Start reading the questions one by one, and have the participants move to their chosen corners of the room. Make sure to emphasize “Should you intervene?” After each question, ask one or more people from each corner to share why they chose it.

• Remember to keep discussion short (2 minutes), as there are many statements to go through.

• Between each question, ask everyone to come back to the middle of the room.

Reflect: 20 minutes Ask the participants to create groups of approximately 4 people (depending on what works for you). Then ask the following questions, one at a time. Spend approximately 5 minutes on each question.

• How do you feel about your choices of when to intervene?

–– Follow-up (if needed): Is there a right answer in these situations?

• How did you decide whether you should intervene or not?

–– Follow-up (if needed): “Was there a common theme to your choices?”

• Would you answer any questions differently if the situations ended with “would you intervene” rather than “should you intervene”?

Generalize: 20 minutes In the same groups, discuss the following questions for 5-10 minutes each.

• What factors influence real world leaders’ choices of whether to intervene in conflicts or not?

• If a country’s citizens are having their Human Rights violated, wouldn’t other countries and organisations also violate the Human Rights if they choose not to intervene?

–– Follow-up: Who’s responisibility is it to intervene?

Apply: ~1 min/participant Ask all the participants to form one circle. Explain that you will do a ‘Pop corn’ round, where anyone who wants to share their thoughts can do so at any time. When everyone is ready, ask the group the following question.

• What thoughts or ideas are you taking away from this activity?

Tips for the Facilitators If you as a facilitator want to skip questions for any reason, make sure to skip a question here and there, and not just the last half, for example.

The questions get more and more difficult, and the point is to reach the most difficult ones.

Explanation of Stand Up After the activity is over, please remember to present Stand Up to the group, so they can understand the educational purpose of the project and the content area of the year.

For example: Stand up aims to create educational activities for CISV’s 2015 content area, Conflict and Resolution. There will be six ready-to-run activities released over the course of the year for chapters, JBs, schools, and anyone else who wants to run them!

Take pictures!

Stand Up is an international project, part of the global movement that is Junior Branch. Let us know whenever you use a Stand Up activity in your chapter, or at any other event by taking pictures and sending them to: standup@ijb.cisv.org. Please also let us know how many people participated. These pictures will be shared on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cisvstandup

Feedback The Stand Up team is always looking for feedback about the activities.

Send any pictures you have to standup@ijb.cisv.org, along with the number of participants who completed the activity.

We would appreciate if facilitators filled out this short evaluation: http://goo.gl/S2kABi

Further reading John Green on the Israel/Palestine conflict

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wo2TLlMhiw

Hank Green on Syria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exrqMPJ1Bts

Kurzgesagt on the US intervention in Iraq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQPlREDW-Ro

John Green on Ukraine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nklduvThs

Stand Up Facebook Page

http://www.facebook.com/cisvstandup

Instagram Updates

http://instagram.com/cisvstandup

APPENDIX

Questions to be asked 1. Your parents are arguing about whose turn it is to do the dishes. You (don’t?) know whose turn it is. Should you intervene?

2. You are walking down the street in the middle of the night, and see someone getting beat up. Should you intervene?

3. You hear from one of your friends siblings that your younger sibling is being bullied at school by an older student. They go to the school directly next to yours, yet you rarely see them at school (since technically, they are in different buildings). Do you intervene?

4. You’re at a party with a close friend of yours who is in a relationship.

After a while you see your friend cheating on their partner with another person. Should you intervene?

5. You are the teacher in a human rights class, and you ask an opinion based question where the class is split with their views. The discussion is getting heated. As the teacher, do you intervene?

6. A train is racing down the track towards a handful of people that are stuck on the rails. You can turn a switch to guide it towards a single person (friend? family?) instead. Should you intervene? --( Utalitarianism - perspectives of ethics) 7. You hear from your best friend that they are feeling very depressed, but they do not want to go see a doctor. Should you intervene?

8. You are the leader of a small, but rich country. You hear that a nearby country has decided to abolish recycling, and will now be burning all of its garbage. Should you intervene?

9. You are in charge of a country’s military forces. A civil war has started in a neighbouring country and it is in your best interest to oppose their leader based on ideological disagreemnts. Should you intervene?

10. A big military alliance that you are not a part of has asked for you to provide forces in an operation in a country close to you, a country from which there has been many reports of the citizens being treated horribly. Do you join the intervention?

11. You are the leader of a large and powerful, but uninvolved country.

You hear that across the ocean, another country’s democratically elected government is beginning to rank people based on their hair and eye color. Do you choose to intervene?

12. You are the leader of a large and powerful country. Across the world, you hear that another powerful country has banned the wearing of a certain religious garment, that many people who are part of a visible minority wear. Should you intervene?

13. Two nations are fighting over the rights to control an amount of land between them. The conflict is escalating and becoming more violent, should the international community intervene? (Is there a good way to introduce the Israelian/Palestinian conflict without a mediumsized essay?) -- can we explain the intervention (is it a military one or a more diplomatic one? ex. Should the international community respond with a military intervention?)

14. You are the leader of a medium-sized country and a civil war has broken out in a neighbor country. The leader of said country has been accused of infringing on the human rights of their people, but assure you everything is fine. Should you intervene?

15. You are the leader of a large economic and military world power. A neighbouring, smaller, and less powerful country with a leader who likes you explains that there is a region of the country that wants to separate and join your country (as historically they were part of your nation). Do you intervene to bring them back into your country?

16. You’re on the subway with not many people around. You see two people who seem to be a couple get into a fight that quickly becomes abusive. Should you intervene?

17. You are working at a project in school with a group of people who does not know eachother from before. Soon you notice that irritation is building up between two of the members of the group and you predict that there will be a conflict soon. Should you intervene?

18. You are at a mall and see someone steal a pair of sunglasses from a store. Should you intervene?

19. In your group of friends you like to mess around with eachothers by pulling mean jokes. After a while you start to notice that one of them is uncomfortable with the jokes but doesn’t dare to say anything.

Should you intervene?

20. You are the leader of a country in which you see a conflict growing larger and is becoming more agressive between two groups of people about how and by who the country is being ruled. Should you intervene?