To complete the sentence, the answer would be the word "gather". Assemble is a synonym for "gather". Assemble means to gather something or someone together. Other synonyms include: build, collect, meet and congregate. The word "assemble" comes from the Latin words "ad-" meaning to and "-simul" meaning together.
I say a because A because my sister read the book.
You are supposed to connect a human rights issue in your novel to a current human rights issue in the US or other countries. For example; if your novel speaks about poverty then you can connect that to current poverty issues in the US.