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LESSON PLAN: THE RIGHTS OF DETAINEES AT GUANTANAMO BAY
Critical Analysis
By Lara Maupin, formerly a social studies teacher and student government adviser at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia

Subjects: Government/civics, international law, current events

Time: This lesson is intended to take 2 class periods

Objectives:

  • Students will identify the legal issues involved in the case of the detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay and surrounding the existence of the base itself.
  • Students will understand the clash between civil liberties and national security during wartime.

Overview:
In this lesson, your students will examine the history, controversies and current issues surrounding the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Students will consider the legal status and rights of those being detained there. This lesson is especially relevant in a government or civics class but may be used in any social studies class in which current events are discussed.

Materials:

Correlations to National Standards

Procedure:

1. Introduction/Background
Give your students the following background on Guantanamo Bay.

Guantanamo Bay is a 45-square-mile American naval base located at the southeastern tip of Cuba, a nearby communist country in the Caribbean. The U.S. has leased the land for the past century although Cuban leader Fidel Castro does not recognize U.S. claims to the land. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. moved about 600 captured prisoners to Guantanamo Bay. Most have remained there for the past two years without being charged with crimes or being given hearings, prompting international and domestic criticism of the Bush administration. The administration contends that they are dangerous enemy combatants being detained and interrogated legally and humanely during the ongoing war on terrorism. The Supreme Court will soon decide whether the detainees should have access to the U.S. federal courts. The status of the detainees is an important current issue and one that gives us the opportunity to examine the clash between the need for safety and security and civil liberties during wartime.

2. Article Analysis
Ask your students to read the following Online Extra article on Guantanamo Bay and the prisoners being held there: Supreme Court Hears Guantanamo Case (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june04/guantanamo_4-21.html)

Have your students share their initial reactions. What surprised them? What do they think?

Tell your students they will now learn more about Guantanamo Bay and those being held there. Ask them to use the article and the following sources available online to complete the HANDOUT. Students may work individually or in small groups. A TEACHER KEY is provided.

Official site of Guantanamo Bay
http://www.nsgtmo.navy.mil/

Articles on Guantanamo Bay
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/khadr/readings/gitmolinks.html

NewsHour Stories:

War and Liberties
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june04/gb_4-20.html

Inside Guantanamo
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/july-dec03/gbay_10-14.html

Military Tribunals
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june03/tribunals_05-26.html

Update: The Detainees
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june03/detainees_1-22.html

3. Group Activity
Once students have completed their handouts, break them into the following six groups.

  • Detainees being held indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay
  • The Bush administration
  • Civil liberties and human rights organizations
  • The Cuban government/Fidel Castro
  • Foreign governments with citizens who are being held at Guantanamo Bay
  • Victims/families impacted by the war on terrorism (9/11 families, military families, etc.)

Tell each group to prepare to debate the following core legal issues surrounding the detention of captured prisoners at Guantanamo Bay from their group's perspective, much as the issue is being argued before the Supreme Court.

  • Classification of the detainees as enemy combatants, rather than as POWs
  • Trials of the detainees in military commissions, rather than in the established civilian or military courts
  • Legal rights of the detainees as non-citizens considered dangerous enemy combatants (habeas corpus, etc.)
  • Status of Guantanamo Bay (sovereignty?)

Students may need to conduct additional research using the online sources given above. In their groups, they should prepare a 3 - 5 minute statement on any and all of the issues above, as appropriate given their assigned group. They should select one group member to read their statement to the class. After all group representatives have made their statements, you may hold a class debate as time permits.

4. Homework
Ask your students to consider their classroom debate and to write about their own opinions regarding Guantanamo Bay and the status of the detainees.

5. Conclusions

As your students turn in their handouts, written group statements, and homework opinion papers, you may wish to ask them to share their opinions regarding Guantanamo Bay. What do they think should be done about the base and the prisoners? Did their opinions change as they learned more?

Extension Ideas

  • Have your students learn more about the history of U.S.-Cuban relations. Where do we go from here? Should relations be normalized? Why or why not?
  • Ask students to look at the history of how non-citizens have been treated in U.S. courts. The Asian immigration cases provide a good example. What can they conclude? How have the rights of immigrants and other non-citizens evolved? What rights should non-citizens have in the U.S.?


National Standards:

McRel Compendium of K-12 Standards Addressed:

Civics Standard 3: Understands the sources, purposes, and functions of law, and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and the common good
Benchmark 1: Knows alternative ideas about the sources of law (e.g., custom, Supreme Being, sovereigns, legislatures) and different varieties of law (e.g., divine law, natural law, common law, statute law, international law)
Benchmark 2: Knows alternative ideas about the purposes and functions of law (e.g., regulating relationships among people and between people and their government; providing order, predictability, security, and established procedures for the management of conflict; regulating social and economic relationships in civil society)

Civics Standard 4: Understands the concept of a constitution, the various purposes that constitutions serve, and the conditions that contribute to the establishment and maintenance of constitutional government
Benchmark 3: Understands how constitutions may limit government's power in order to protect individual rights and promote the common good

Civics Standard 15: Understands how the United States Constitution grants and distributes power and responsibilities to national and state government and how it seeks to prevent the abuse of power
Benchmark 7: Understands how specific features and the overall design of the Constitution results in tensions among the three branches (e.g., the power of the purse, the power of impeachment, advice and consent, veto power, judicial review), and comprehends the argument that the tensions resulting from separation of powers, checks and balances, and judicial review tend to slow down the process of making and enforcing laws, thus insuring better outcomes

Standard 18: Understands the role and importance of law in the American constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection of individual rights
Benchmark 5: Understands how the individual's rights to life, liberty, and property are protected by the trial and appellate levels of the judicial process and by the principal varieties of law (e.g., constitutional, criminal, and civil law)
Benchmark 8: Knows historical and contemporary instances in which judicial protections have not been extended to all persons and instances in which judicial protections have been extended to those deprived of them in the past
Benchmark 9: Understands why due process rights in administrative and legislative procedures are essential for protecting individual rights and maintaining limited government

Civics Standard 22: Understands how the world is organized politically into nation-states, how nation-states interact with one another, and issues surrounding U.S. foreign policy
Benchmark 8: Understands the influence of American constitutional values and principles on American foreign policy (e.g., a commitment to the self-determination of nations), and understands the tensions that might arise among American values, principles, and interests as the nation deals with the practical requirements of international politics (e.g., a commitment to human rights and the requirements of national security)

National Council for the Social Studies Thematic Strands:

Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Power, Authority, and Governance
Global Connections
Civic Ideals and Practices


Author Lara Maupin has a Master’s Degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College.

To find out more about opportunities to contribute to this site, contact Leah Clapman at extra@newshour.org.

 

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