Bracket challenge links sports and human rights

March Madness brought about a surge of bracket-making. But instead of predicting basketball wins, human rights were the subject of students’ brackets this weekend.

Events surrounding the International Day of Sport were coordinated by the IU chapter of the United Nations Association of the USA which presented a “Human Rights Bracket” Saturday in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
This concept is based on the United Nations’ International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, which took place Sunday.

“The International Day of Sport for Development and Peace contributes to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals,” said Kelsey Cooper, founder of IU’s UNA-USA chapter. “Sports bring people together as a community, and the UN believes that sports can help people in areas of conflict come together and create peaceful opportunities for younger generations.”

Students were asked to choose which human rights issues are the most important to them, using a March Madness-style bracket.

The idea behind the bracket-making was to bring IU students’ attention to human rights issues in an engaging way, Cooper said.

The bracket was divided into four categories — civil liberties, global health, economic opportunity and freedom.

After filling out their brackets, students’ entries were put in a raffle for prizes like UNA-USA merchandise and gift cards to Starbucks and Amazon.

“Students can choose which one of the issues under each category is most important to them,” Cooper said. “And by the end, we will come up with the most important human rights issue to IU students.”

William Nicholas, freshman political science student and member of Model United Nations, said he believes the bracket event taught important lessons to IU students.

“IU students will go on to work in an increasingly globalized world,” he said. “An awareness of global and human rights issues is crucial to the modern student and employee.”

The organization has been on campus for four months and often works in conjunction with IU’s Model United Nations team.

“This organization works to promote United Nations missions on college campuses and raise awareness of human rights and international policy,” Cooper said. “The UNA is happy to work with the Model UN group on campus because we have very similar interests and work together.”

As part of the International Day of Sport, IU’s UNA-USA chapter created a video featuring IU athletes.

“The idea of the video is to get IU student athletes familiar with the declaration of human rights,” said Bradi Heaberlin, coordinator of the video project. “They then read it on camera to demonstrate the true universal nature of the declaration.”

Cooper said she encourages students to get involved with the United Nations, with the UNA or on their own.

“It is important for IU students to be aware of what is going on in the world around them,” she said. “I believe the UNA can help them recognize and take action on international issues.”

Follow reporter Rashmika Nedungadi on Twitter @rashmika_n.