Scholastic Update articles from December 1997

Scholastic Update archives from December 1997

The struggle for human rights.(includes related information on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)(Brief Article)
December 8, 1997... There is a place where no kid is safe, where a fanatic, well-armed guerrilla band is kidnapping teenagers by the thousands, keeping them as slaves and soldiers, and forcing them to kill or be killed. The place happens to be in the African...

A teenage nightmare: in Uganda, a rebel group has kidnapped thousands of teenagers, forcing them to kill their enemies - and each other.(Lord's Resistance Army)
December 8, 1997... In Uganda, a rebel group has kidnapped thousands of teenagers, forcing them to kill their enemies--and each other. The boy, identified only by his initials, J.O., will never forget the night he was initiated into the Lord's Resistance Army...

Human rights hot spots.(locations of countries with the worst human rights abuses)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
December 8, 1997... According to Amnesty International, human rights abuses occur in most countries in the world. This map highlights some of the worst places and provides background on each. Cuba Cuba is the only Communist nation in the Western Hemisphere...

Defusing war's deadly legacy: a historic treaty bans land mines - but over U.S. objections.(includes related information on 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams)
December 8, 1997... Palavra Damir's brother had warned him not to go. That neighborhood of Sarajevo, Bosnia, had been heavily mined in Bosnia's civil war. But the fighting was over and an elderly friend of the family had asked Palavra to check on his apartment....

What is a war crime?
December 8, 1997... Armies are supposed to kill. But are there limits to what is acceptable during war? In July 1995, when Bosnian Serb soldiers seized the town of Srebrenica (SHREH-bruh-NEETZ-uh), Bosnia, they forced thousands of civilian men onto buses, took...

Does the U.S. abuse human rights?
December 8, 1997... Rights groups say the U.S. doesn't practice what it preaches. Nonsense, the U.S. says. Haitian immigrant Abner Louima lived quietly and without trouble in his adopted homeland. The 30-year-old electrical engineer never broke the law. He...

Show me the (soft) money!(campaign contributions as a corrupting influence)
December 8, 1997... Do campaign contributions corrupt government? A widening scandal seems to show the answer is yes. A hush fell over the packed Senate hearing room on September 18 when Roger Tamraz, a wealthy oilman with a shady reputation, sat down to tell...

Are the yanks coming?(political cartoons on the debate over U.S. entry into World War I)(Brief Article)
December 8, 1997... In 1914, Americans debated whether to enter World War I. Through the power of their pens, cartoonists helped shape the decision. On July 28, 1914, a man with a gun jumped out of a crowd and fired a volley of shots at a passing motorcade in...