HUMANDECEMBER 10

Page 2. NOVEMBER 1952 UNESCO

ED ! TORtAL OFHCES :

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Except when otherwise started, articlesappearing in this issue may be reproducedwithout prior permission, provided acknow-ledgement is given to the Unesco COURTIER.

Poverty, sickness and ignorance-three of humanity's afflictions which a universal respect for Human Rightswould help to mitigate-are eloquently portrayed in this charcoal sketch by Helen Lempriere, the Austraiian artist.

A CHILD'S GUIDE TO HUMAN

RIGHTS

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, the well-known American writer, recentlyundertook what she called"an alarm-tingly important task"-that ofputting the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights into words that a childcan understand and remember

The result is a profusely illustrated160-page book, whose title, A fairworld for all., is in itself an admirablesumming up of the Declaration. Toproduce this work, Mrs. Fisher studiedall the official records of the UnitedNations on the Declaration. Then,for her young readers, she wrote thesewords :

"It was as though all the delegatesto the United Nations stood up andcalled to the enormous crowd ofhuman beings all around the globe :'Everyone, no matter what race, comeon out into your fair share of freedom,as big a share as anybody. It doesn'tmake any difference what colour youare... Women, too, have the right tobe as free as any grown-up'".

Article 5 of the Declaration (No oneshall be subjected to torture or to

OUR COVER

The front coverof this Human

Rights issue ofthe'Courier'shows part ofthe Acropolisin Athens-thecitadel of Atticdemocracy,through whoseideals the con-...-...

ception of fundamental Human Rightsbegan to take shape in classical times.

cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment(Y/"punishment) is rendered byMrs. Fisher :"It is wrong, it is wickedto make other people suffer, or tomake them feel they are no good.That's the moral reason for thisArticle, and a mighty one. There isanother reason-a practical, commonsense one. Terrible punishments donot make human beings better, moreinclined to do the right thing, moreuseful to the rest of society. Just theother way round. We don't get moreof what we need from men and womenby infiicting great pain on them ormaking them ashamed of themselves.We get less."

Article 17 (everyone has the rightto own property alone as well as inassociation with others) is given atwist that will appeal to every child :"At school there are things that youown'in association with others'like aswing or a place to play ball. If youpush a schoolmate out of the swing, if

you never give him a chance tothrow his ball on the playground,you're taking away from him some-thing he has as much right to as tohis own pencil or his special book orhis jacket or his shoes."

The book has an introduction byMrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.

* McGraw-HiU Book Co., t2. 75.

HUMAN RIGHTS SEMINAR

The legal, economic and socialaspects of the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights were discussed at aregional Seminar on the Declarationheld in Havana, Cuba, under the jointsponsorship of the Unesco regionaloffice there and the Inter-AmericanAcademy of Comparative and Inter-national Law. International lawyersled the discussion.

UNESCO 7th GENERAL CONFERENCE

OPENS ON NOVEMBER 12

'-T'NE Sev ! ! nth Session of the General Conference of Unesco wUI opentit Pans on November 12, and is expected to IMt ufUil December 10.The Organization's 65 Jolemlier States ht1Jve been asked. to send delegates,

while non-members, were invited, to send observers.As the Conference is now to meet every two years instead of annually,

itwiU be llS/ied to approve a budget and a programme of w ? rk for 1953-54.A mong the questwns to be considered rwill be the strengthemng and extend-ing of intellectual co-<ypeI"alinn through cultural agreements, thestart of a scheme for travel f ; oupons,. furthe step to aid the fre, e flow ofinformalwn, the development of the tnternatumal instItutes set up in Ger-IIW/l !/ by Cnesco, and the ïmplementation of the Universal Copyright Con-ventIOn an1 ; of C ; n. esco's Technical Assistance Programme.

The appu' ! : alion for membership of two Btates, Libya and Spain, will alsobe examined by the Conference. Prior to the opening, representalives ofUnesco's National Commisswns,'will consider how'to carry out the organi-zation's programme in their respective countries. Delegates from inter-national TWn-governmental organizations having consultative status u ; ithFnesco ldll also discuss methods of co-operation with the Organization.

COURIER

THE ROAD

NOVEMBER 1952. Pe3

TO UNIVERSAL

HUMAN RIGHTS

By Alexandre Leventis

o many people, the four years since December 10,1948, when the Universal Declaration of HumanRights'was adopted and proclaimed by the GeneralAssembly of the United Nations, seem too short aperiod to judge its full significance. Yet, even theopening words of the Declaration, recognizing"the inherent dignity and equal and inalienablerights of at), members of the human family"leaveno doubt as to its capital importance.

Those who today enjoy the fundamental rightsof equality and freedom tend to regard this prin-11_-__1_____1 11."'-mL__-----_. t. L-. J ! _--_. L 1...-.. 1. 1-. 1. 1...-

ciple as a perfectly natural thing. They are apt to forget both therecent lessons of history and the examples of past centuries, duringwhich men fought to win recognition of this principle, and resistedthe tyranny and oppression responsible for individual and collectivecrimes against humanity.

The modern conception of Human Rights is the fruit of a longevolution in human customs, outlook and la\v which finally brokedown outmoded doctrines of absolutism and feudalism. Yet the ideaitself is by no means new. If we look back over the centuries, we findit set forth in the texts of constitutions, expouaded in the speeches ofpoliticians, expressed in the'wisdom of Hindu and Chinese philosophy,and recorded in the writings of religious leaders.

One of the greatest of ancient historians, Thucydides, has re-corded for posterity the famous oration of Pericles, in which the atterexpounded the conception of Human Rights in the Athenian demo-cracy :"Its administration favours the many, instead of the few ; thatis why it is called a democracy. The laws afford equal justice to allin their private differences. Advancement falls to reputation for capa-city, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit.Poverty does not bar the way ; if a man is able to serve the tate, heis not hindered by the obscurity of his condition."

In particular, Thucydides quotes an admirable maxim :"Freedomis identical witch happiness, courage identical'with freedom :'

Such Human Rights principles'are expressed in Roman philo-sophy which, despite the acceptance of slavery, can record Seneca'sHomo res sacra homini (Man is sacred to man). They are also to befound in the spiritual'theories of Buddhism, the political wisdom ofthe disciples of Confucius, the Islamic precept pf human brotherhood,the ethics of Judaism, the equalitarianism of Christianity, quotationsfrom the writer of the Reformation and the 17th century, and in theclarion call of the 18th century, with its humanitarian philosophy andoptimism which engendered a po'werful upsurge of internationalprogress and freedom.

Human Rights have been included in the charters and consti-tutions which, in the various countries where they were promulgated,won for men some of the rights that are now proclaimed in the Uni-versal Declaration of 1948. Among the oldest of these documents isthe Magna Carta of 1215, but the ones which exerted the most wide-spread influence were the French Declaration of the Rights of Manand Citizen, promulgated in 1789, and America's Declaration of Inde-pendance and Bills of Rights, which preceded it by several years.

Yet, none of these declarations was expressing new ideas. Asthe historian Georges Jellinek has remarked,"The number of newpolitical ideas is very small ; most of them can be trac'ed back, at leastin essence, to the most ancient formulae of public law. This, however,is not true of political institutions,'which are perpetually changing."

But both the French and American Revolution elaborated newconceptions of public law, and left a profound mark on all politicalchanges which came in their train.'

In the American declarations, however, the rights defined werenot traditional and historical. Instead, they were abstract and rootedin human psychology. Their wording was drawn from the voca-bulary of the humanitarian philosophy of the age :"inalienable rights","pursuit of happiness","resistance to oppression."

Inspired by the doctrines of the Church, the theories of Locke, theworks of Rousseau, natural law and the Cohtrat Social, the AmericanBills of Rights,'were, like the French Declaration, the product of theintellectual climate of the 18th century, which was essentially inter-national in character.

It is interesting to recall that the authors of the French Declarationof the Rights of Man readily admitted that their text'was based onthe American models. The Archbishop of Bordeaux, Comte Jerome-Marie Champion de Cice, declared in 1789 :

"It was fitting that it should be to our soil that this noble idea.conceived in another hemisphere, should first be transplanted. Wecontributed towards the events whereby North America'won herfreedom. America in her turn shows us the principles whereon tobase the preservation of our own."

Nevertheless, the French declaration of the Rights of Man and ofthe Citizen cannot be regarded as a free translation of the Americanones, but an interpretation of them ; and it was this declaration draftedin French-a universal language of the i8th century-that let loosethe humanitarian wave which swept across Europe, then to Latin-America and finally around the world. Everywhere the French textwas imitated, consulted, adopted.

The Declaration of 1789 is not, however, a unique example of theirresistible spread of humanitarian ideas. There was, for instance,the Constitution of Cadiz, which, until 1830, was the prototype ofliberal constitutions in southern Europe. From then until the end ofthe 19th century, the Belgian constitution of 1831 served as a modeland an example in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Naples, Rome, Piedmont,Rumania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Egypt.

If, after the efforts of ancient days and the achievements of moremodern times, the struggles of the 19th and 20th centuries did notbring new rights, they did at least usher in new hopes : protection ofthe family and of children, equality of the sexes, the assurance of restand leisure, and a standard of living adequate to health and well-being. Alongside the traditional freedoms has appeared the concep-tion of economic and social rights, some of which have already becomerealities.

But despite the humanitarian character of the many declarations,charters and constitutions, and their broad framework which has madepossible their adoption without major modification in many countries,they retain an undeniably national quality. In this they differ fromthe Universal Declaration of 1948, which, for the first time, brought thefight for Human Rights on an international basis.

The Universal Declaration applies to all human beings"withoutdistinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion,political or other opinion, national or social origin, property or otherstatus."It is not designed to protect any one individual or group, anyone nation or group of nations, but fixes a common standard ofachievement for all peoples.

The Universal Declaration, which is the result of two years oflaborious study and discussion, could hardly be described as a spon-taneous event. It is expressive of our time, for it voices the revolt ofmankind's conscience against bal'bnl'ous acts committed during a worldwar which brought suffering and oppression to many peoples.

Recognition of the difficulties encountered in reaching agreementon the terms of the Declaration can only help to enhance its value. Forthis was no document blithely adopted in a surge of blind enthusiasm,but a charter, each of whose words was carefully weighed. To reachagreement on matters involving material interests alone is often difficultenough, yet how much more so when it is a question of principles !

A witty reference to such difficulties is made by Jacques Maritainin his introduction to a Unesco collection of essays on Human Rights.

"It is related", he writes,"that at one of the meetings of a UnescoNational Commission,'where Human Rights were being discussed,someone expressed astonishment that certain champions of violentlyopposed ideologies had agreed on a list of those rights.'Yes,'they said,'we agree about the rights, but on condition that no one asks us'why'.That'why'is where the argument begins.'"

But, as Richard McKeon has pointed out in the same collection :"The fundamental problem is not found in compiling a list of HumanRights ; the declarations of Human Rights that have been prepared bycommittees and groups who have undertaken a study of the problemand the declarations that have been submitted to the Commission onHuman Rights are surprisingly similar.

"The differences are found rather in what is meant by these rights,and these differences of meanings depend on divergent basic assump-tions, which in turn lend plausibility to, and are justified by, contradic-tory interpretations of the economic and social situation."

Those who, on the basis of some of the things happening in theworld today, attack the Universal Declaration, by declaring that it isno more than a pious hope, commit a grave injustice and mistake. TheDeclaration was never conceived as a code which would abrogate,modify or replace the laws of each country. In its preamble, withoutany ambiguity, It lays down standards which will beapplied once new measures have been adopted on anational or international basis.

tonhnucdon next page.

There was nothing surprising about this, for, as Joseph Barnave,a member of the Constituent Assembly, had said :"The Declaration ofRights must be simple and comprehensible to all ; it must become ournational catechism."

Just before the final text ways adopted,"a remarkable, almostinconceivable, situation arose,"the historian Alphonse Aulard tells us.

"The'1, 200 deputies, who had been unable, while working indi-vidualfy or in small groups, to arrive at any brief or clear formulae,succeeded in the tumult of public discussion in elaborating a conciseand inspiring text.

"The Declaration of Rights was completed'within a single weekby dint of improvized oral amendments. It was as though the entirenation, spontaneously imposing its will, was dictating to its repre-sentatives the words of the Declaration."

It is not straying from the subject of Human Rights to recall thata year later this Constituent Assembly promulgated the famous decreewhich represents the first constitutional renunciation of aggressivewar."The French nation undertakes never to embark on any warfor conquest, and never to employ force against the freedom of anypeople."

Underlying this was the conception of the"just war,"which wastaken up by the United Nations as the basis of collective security.

Page 4. NOVEMBER 19 S 2

THE ROAD

TO UNIVE RSA L

1

(Continued from pre, ious page)

In other words, it cannot make its full impactuntil its principles have been embodied in acovenant under which nations will undertakeformally to apply Human Rights, and afterarrangements have been made for the UnitedNations to supervise and, if necessary, toimpose, the application of these rights.

This was emphasized by Professor BorisMirkine-Guetzevitch", when he wrote :"'It isimportant not to underestimate the opposition,caution and hostility which new principles offreedom and Human Rights almost alwaysencounter. Human Rights cannot be imposedall at once-years, sometimes several decades,must elapse before the principles proclaimedcan be embodied in constitutional texts. Nordoes the mere fact that Human Rights havebeen proclaimed and inscribed in constitutionsmean that they will automatically be observed."

In the four years which have passed sincethe adoption of the 1948 Declaration, men havestill fought one another, and all mankind haslived in the shadow of war, and the fear ofvery real threats to freedom. Yet, whileadmitting a decline of Human Rights, there iscertainly no reason for despair and apathy.

On the contrary, the moment to proclaimfundamental freedoms with renewed vigour iswhen they are most gravely threatened. It isbecause these freedoms are denied to millionsof human beings that they must be defendedand extended.

The greatest enemy of Human Rights isman himself. Those who live under a tyrannycan do no more than give vent to their despair,while those who enjoy these rights are perhapsover-inclined to take them for granted-likesomeone who recently declared :"HumanRights are so much a part and parcel of ourlives that we find it difficult to imagine thatthey could not exist !"

Yet it is not because all men are not yetready to offer each other the hand offriendship that no hands should be out-stretched.

"In the midst of all our miseries and allthe injustices committed or suffered, we musthave faith in human nature,"Jean Jaureswrote in his Address to Youth."He who haslost the sense of grandeur and infinite poten-tialities of mankind is self-condemned neverto understand his fellow men.

"Such faith is neither stupid nor super-ficial. It is fully a'ware of all the vices,crimes, errors, prejudices and egoisms-theegoism of individuals, the egoism of castes,the egoism of parties and the egoism ofclasses, which hamper progress and frequentlyturn the river of life into a muddy, troubledtorrent. And it is aware that the forces of

good, of wisdom and light and justice need thehelp of time, and that the night of slavery andignorance cannot be dispersed by a suddenflash of light, but only by a long series offlickering dawns."

Unesco is working to end this"night of

slavery and ignorance."Its programme con-stitutes in itself a roll-call of the fundamentalrights of man, and its work is aimed at theirrealization.

Unesco's programme of fundamentaleducation aims to help the people of under-developed countries to raise their standardsof living and to solve their economic andsocial problems. It is also \working to bringabout the universal application of free andcompulsory primary education. It is fosteringthe access of women to education, the freedomof artists, the free flow of cultural material.In fact, every aspect of Unesco's programmeis linked'with one or other of the rights pro-claimed in the Universal Declaration.

It is Unesco's effort in favour of Human

Rights, in close co-operation with the otherSpecialized Agencies of the United Nations,that forms the theme of this issue of theCourier.

THE RIGHT TO EDUCATIONI

The flags of many countriesflank the main entrance toUnesco's Patzcuaro centre.

"I M G I. N Et you're in acar hurryingalong the

magnificent roadwhich rolls north-westwardly fromMexico City overmountain ranges,through pine forestswhich remind youof Switzertand,one-street villages ofmudbrick houses withwide shadowed eaves,dusty streets wherepigs and fowl wander.... 0

donkeys amble along under enormous loads"Men in wide-brimmed straw hats are squatting in

doorways, women in colourful scarves are chatting ingroups, and over all 011 intense magical light-pours out ofa hot blue sky.

"We have three companions, all Latin American, twomen and a girl. The girl, called Conchita, s ! im, dark-haired and vivacious, is from Ecuador. One man, Jose, isa Mexican, a health expert. The other, Alfredo, an agri-cultural student, comes from Guatemo) a.

"They are all young and high-spirited, and as we drivealong they occasionally break into song-for preference,one caNed'La Pacanda,'which is named after an islandin Lake P6tzcuaro."

In these words, Leonard Cottrell, a B. B. C. features pro-ducer who was invited by Unesco to visit its FundamentalEducation Centre in Pdtzcuoro, describes his arrival atthis small Mexican town.

Conchita, José and Alfredo are students at this inter-national centre, which also has people from Peru, Uruguay,EI Satvador, Haiti-in fact, from no fewer than 16 LatinAmerican countries. They have all come to PátzcuarcÍ tostudy Fundamental Education methods, so that when theyreturn to their own countries they can train other special-ists in this work.

The first people Cottrell saw in Pátzcuaro were threeboys, in black jackets with silver braid, who came overto their car and, accompanied by a guitar, song"Flor deorquida,"0 love song whose title means'''little orchidflower."

"they made the guitars themselves,"Alfredo explained."The Taroscans are wonderful instrument makers, and infact, an amazing people."

Cottrell's reaction to this remark rather surprised hiscompanions. *'As they seem happy enough, why have youpeople got to spoil it all by educating them ?", he asked.

"We're not educating them in the sense that you mean- academically,"Alfredo said."The only way to under-stand is for you to come out to the villages with us."

Leonard Cottrell had heard about Fundamental Educa-tion, the main aim of which is to help people to under-stand the problems that affect them directly and thengive them the means of solving these problems throughtheir own efforts.

It is an emergency method brought out by Unesco togive the millions of people who live in under--developedparts of the world the minimum of instruction which theyneed to improve their living conditions, their health, andtheir social and economic life.alfred, Conchita and José had explained that the

students at the Centre used the Torascans as 'subjects"in their experiments. The Torascans, who formed themajority of the population of the region, were beset by anumber of related problems-malnutrition, poor soil,disease and illiteracy. The Centre's activities fit into aMexican Government campaign to raise living standardsaround Lake Pdtzcuaro.

The director of the Centre, in explaining to Cottrell thatthe training given at the Centre (which is called CREFAL- initials for Centro Regional de Educacián Fundamentalpara America Latin) stressed the fact that it was uselessteaching people to read and write unless they had theincentive to learn and use this knowledge.

That was why the students-like Conchita, José andAlfredo-in addition to following the theoretical andpractical courses given by the specialists at the Centre,also went out into the Tarascan villages to teach not onlythe ABC and writing, but also things that affected every-day life-which are all the more urgent for men whoseliving conditions must be improved.

It was in Nocutzapo, one of the many fishing villages onthe side of Lake Patzcuoro, that Cottrell had his nextlesson in Fundamental Education. His three companionsbrought him to the end of a narrow alley, where twoyoung girls were pulling up earthenware jars filled withwater, while nearby some villagers were building a stonetank. José explained :

"You know, it's so difficult to explain to these peoplethe relationship between disease and the causes ofdisease. In your own country, any child knows thatdiseases are spread by germs. That's not because you'remore intelligent than these people-don't run away withthat idea. You're taught it at school. You read booksand see films.

* Several passages and quotations in this particlehave been taken from the introduction to HumanRights across the ages by Professor Boris Mirkine-Guetzevitch, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Poli-tical Science at the French University in New York,and Professor at the Institute of Higher Interna-tional Studies at the University of Paris. Hiswork forms part of a colleetion of studies byeminent writers, which is to be published byUnesco next year. This collection will be ananthology of the important basic documents onHuman Rights.

The making of sombreros has been a leadingindustry on the island of Jaracuaro for centuries.

A student vaccinates a villager's pig againstcholera, and sets a widely-followed example.

Oil stoves, one possible solution to the fuel problem in this wood-starved region, are demonstrated byan Ecuador student. Fundamental Education must make a practical approach to everyday difficulties.

-.UNESCO

; col COURIER NOVEMBER 1952. page 5

MEANS THE RIGHT TO BETTER LIVING

Under a blazing sun on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro, the villagers load up stones destined for a new road which they themselves have decided to build.

"But how can you expect someone who is illiterate, whohas never been outside his village, to realize that thething which kills his wife or child is the water he drinks ?

"That's why we've convinced the people of Nocutzapothat, if they have pure water, they're not likely to gettyphoid or dysentery. So they've given their time andtheir labour to build the cistern. They're going to buy anelectric pump-with their own money, mind you-tobring the water into the cistern. Then we'll install afilter, and for the first time Nocutzapo will have a purewater supply."

Then it was Alfredo's turn to give Cottrell a lesson- this time on the agricultural side of the students'task.As they went to a village up in the hills, Alfredoexplained :

"You see, the emphasis in this work is always onself-help. If you try to impose new techniques on thesepeople, you get nowhere. They simply watch you andthen forget all about it. But if you give them a personalincentive to learn the techniques for themselves, then yourlessons are more likely to stick.

"It's like the story of the pigs. I went to a place calledSan Gregorio, where nearly all the pigs were dying ofcholera. Well, the answer was simple : inocu) ation. Butwe were a bit too'hasty.

"Without first of all explaining what we wanted to do,we just arrived with our serum and hypodermics and setto work. When we arrived at the village, we wentstraight to the house of the village leader, whom we'd metbefore, and as he wasn't in sight, we didn't wait, butset to work on one of his sows.

"Suddenly he appeared.'What's happening ?' he said.'What's that you've got in your hand ?'

.,'It's only a hypodermic syringe,') answered.'There's no harm in it.'

"'Let me look !'

"'tt's quite harmless. You see this bottle ? Insideit there's a medicine. You know when you wife was illthe doctor gave her medicine out of a bottle'.

"'Yes, but that medicine was red. This has nocolour.'

"'But that doesn't matter. This instrument is made tagive medicine to your sow. Only, instead of making herdrink it, we inject it into her blood, like this : And Istarted to demonstrate.

"'Stop,'he shouted.

..'I tell you it's good medicine : I answered.'Yourpigs are all dying of cholera. This will save them.'

"'Stop,) te)) you,'he repeated. And villagers whohad come on the scene started shouting'Get out !','They're foreigners'''Throw them out !'"

"Finally, the village leader said :'You are strangershere. We don't know you, and we don't like you. Wedon't need foreigners to show us our business. Now, getout !'"..

And Alfredo learned his lesson. It was no goodtrying to move too quickly. First you had to gain theconfidence of the people and get to know and like them,and then you reach the stage when they trust you, whichthey will after a time.

In this case, one of the CREFAL professors, who knewthe village leader, later went to have a chat with him.Then the leader invited Alfredo and his party bock, andthey could not have been more friendly. The party injectedthe pigs, and showed the farmers how to use theinstrument. And nowadays they buy their own anti-cholera serum, and do the injections themselves-withexcellent results. At present they lose perhaps one pigout of ten, compared with nine out of ten before.

Many other aspects of Fundamental Education wereshown to Cottrell : how the peasants were taught to grafton trees, to work their fields better, to make straw hats ;how to teach housewives to produce more nourishing andhealthy meals, as well as showing them how to sew."And,"Conchita told hi-n,"t don't hear the phrase'Thisis my fate, this is how I was born, and this is how Ishot ! die'any more."

During his final talk with the director of the Centre,Leonard Cottrell heard a band playing"Pátzcuaro", anold song in which the Tarascans praise Don Vasco, a priestwho helped them centuries ago. Now a new verse praisesCREFAL and Unesco.

.'y ou could hardly have a better indication of thesuccess of our scheme than this,"the director pointedout to Cottrell.."After all, the best judges of the successof Fundamental Education are the people themselves. Theverse you have just heard goes like this :'At Patzcuaro,we even have CREFAL, the home of Unesco, which is ofgreat importance to our country !'".

The first class at the Unesco Centre at Pátzcuaro willgraduate in a few weeks. It was inaugurated in May 1951

with an enrolment of 52 students from nine Latin-Ame-rican countries. This year, the number of studentsattending the courses will be doubled.

Pátzcuaro is only the first of a network of FundamentalEducation centres which Unesco, with the aid of the otherSpecialized Agencies of the United Nations, proposes toset up in the areas which need them most : Africa, Asia,Latin America, the Middle East. The next one will be atSirs-el-Layan, in Egypt. In the same way as the MexicanGovernment has furnished the installations and groundfor the Pátzcuoro Centre, as well as given financial aid,so the Egyptian Government will provide similar facilitiesotSirs-et-Layan.

The completion of Unesco's Fundamental Education planwill take several years. This is inevitable in view of theenormous task that has to be faced. Such a task seemseven more urgent at a time when the anniversary of theadoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights isbeing celebrated.

In this connection, the words used last year byM. Jaime Torres Bodet, Director-General of Unesco, arestill applicable today. In a foreword too bookletdescribing Unesco's projected network of FundamentalEducation Centres he wrote :

"If we want to live in a united world, we cannot allowthis most. unjust of 011 frontiers to go on existing-thefrontier that divides those who can read from those whocannot. We have terrible memories of the concentrationcamps, but we some-times forget that,without prisons orbarbed wire, morethan 1, 200, 000, 000men and women livein the imptacobte,invisible. inner dun-geon of ignorance.We propagate thetext of the Univer-sal Declaration ofHuman Rights, buthow can we pre-sume to call it'universal'when weknow that not oneman in two canso much as readit !"

Page 6. NOVEMBER 1952UNESCO

THE FREEDOM OF THE ARTIST AND

HIS DUTY TO MANKIND

ARTISTS always dislike a lack of precision. The artisthas to take hold of an idea and translate it into some-thing concrete-a picture, a statue, a symphony or a

poem.Those who met in Venice at the end of September for the

International Conference of Artists (organized under Unescoauspices) displayed this characteristic of their calling whenthey discussed the problems of freedom for a whole week,without for a moment dwelling on theoretical considerationsregarding the concepts of freedom or rights.

There were nearly 300 of them from 44 countries. Thequestions they asked and to which they sought to giveunanimous answers were :

What are the requirements for free creative work ?What conditions make it possible, and what is the price

that may possibly have to be paid for them ?How can the real message of a work of art be brought

home to men and women ?How can the integrity of a work be defended against the

enemies of art, who are usually the enemies of freedomas well ?

How, finally, can artists p) ay a usefu) part in Unesco'swork to secure these ends ?

These are practical questions, questions whose solutioninvolves technical considerations and sometimes economics.The painter knows that he may work as he pleases-providedhe has enough to live on. But he wishes his painting tolive for others and, if possible, for all the world. So do thesculptors and the architects.

All three dream of working together and welding theirvarious arts into that unity which gave the world the Greektemple, the mediaeval church and the Renaissance palace.After long years apart, they desire not merely associationbut union, and recognize that union is impossible without Statesupport, public understanding and the international patronageof cultural organizations.

At Venice, they studied ways in which such help might beprovided, and laid the foundations for their own collabora-tion.

Once their personal independence is safeguarded, nothingcounts for so much with the dramatist and the writer as thefreedom of the theatre and the freedom of the printed word.The problems which then arise seem rather far removedfrom the literary sphere, since they relate to subsidies, mono-polies, the quota system, taxes, charges, and all the intricaciesof copyright.

Writers are generally held to be individualists, but the ideasexpressed by those at this conference gave no evidence ofselfish interests. They were more concerned with the positionof literature and the drama than with the personal status ofthe novelist, poet or dramatist ; they were trying to discoverthe best ways of maintaining and increasing the influence oftheir art in contemporary society.

The composers were working along the same lines. Theonly effective method of establishing music as a force (in aworld which seldom recognizes a masterpiece until it is atleast a century old), seemed to them to be education. Theyare anxious to introduce musical education at least for childrenand young peoples, if not for the public in general.

by Georges Fradier

For the circulation and wider performance of their works,for the protection of their personal interests, composers relyon such organizations as the International Music Council andUnesco ; long-term collaboration is the only real means ofdealing adequately with such problems.

vastly, there were representatives of the film industry inVenice, glad, as they said, of this"official recognition of thefilm as a form of art."They also wasted no time overdefinitions or artistic criteria.

If films or to take their place as a genuine form of art,the film industry, even more than architecture and the drama,stands in need of sound finance and, of course, sound policy.The discussions among its representatives at the conferencedealt mainly with the questions of assistance from the publicauthorities, the reduction of taxes and duties, and Statesubsidies.

But what of independence ? If all artists in their separatespheres look to the public authorities for tax exemptions, helpand subsidies, what becomes of the independence which theyare usually so swift to defend ?

Not for one moment during the conference did they seekto conceal this apparent contradiction. In their view, aworld without art is unthinkable, so that it seems perfectlynatural to them that the public authorities should give helpto art, to which they themselves have devoted their fives.If it is suggested that the authorities in question might regardsuch help as a pretext for control or direction, the artist willask :"own what, grounds ? I am not asking for charity ; Iclaim your help in the name of freedom itself."

The Venice conference therefore called on all States to"deist from imposing censorship in any form upon the products

of the mind, to refrain from restricting freedom or compro-mising the position of the creative artist, and to recognize noobstacles to the free movement of works of art."

There was no talk of rights for artists as the privilege ofa chosen few. On the contrary, it was the Declaration ofHuman Rights which seemed to be naturally and necessarilyinvoked. Roberto Rossellini sought to relate the aspirationsand claims of the film industry to the principle of theright to participate in cultural life.

At the end of its last meeting, the Conference adoptedenthusiastically a resolution, submitted on behalf of the Italianand French delegations by Guido Piovene and Jules Remains,which declared :"Respect for the dignity of the individualis the prerequisite for any form of creative activity... Thesefundamental requirements are of universe) application and arepart of the body of Human Rights, which it is the duty ofartists to help in safeguarding..."

It was clearly in order to provide that help that the VeniceConference sought ways in which artists could be associatedwith Unesco's work. The eagerness of artists to work withthis Organization was fu)) y demonstrated-first of all, by thenumber of people of outstanding prestige who had acceptedUnesco's invitation. More clearly every day, however, theconference showed its confidence in Unesco and in the Organi-zation's influence and impartiality.

A whole series of resolutions dealing with sociological, legaland educational problems, and with the life of the arts, are

addressed directly to Unesco, soliciting the Organization'sservices and offering to share its responsibilities. One of themost important decisions from this point of view was that toestablish an International Association for the Plastic Arts,which is to form another link in the chain of international co-operating bodies, and which Unesco is to sponsor and organizein the first stage of its devetopment*.

In short, the Conference showed clearly the readiness ofartists to collaborate with an Organization, one of whose mainaims is to uphold the right of every man and woman to ashare in cultural life.

This right is commonly regarded as a remote ideal. Butit is obvious that such an ideal can have no more ferventchampions than those who are not merely the representa-times, but the artisans of culture, and in whose hands its deve-lopment lies.

Referring to what he calls"combination workshops", LeCorbusier spoke of the need for combining"all the arts whichexpress man's emotions-music, drama, the ballet, literatureand... the fi) m-at) the embodiments of a poetry which isindeed the very essence of man's reason for lying."

The rights of the artist are thus seen to be not merely onefacet of Human Rights, but their very symbol, if not, indeed,the fundamental condition for all other rights.

In the words of Thornton Wilder, the Venice conferencere-affirmed"two principles which the world is in constantdanger of forgetting : that the artist, through his creation,has been at all times a force that draws men together, andreminds them that the things which men have in commonare greater than the things that separate them, and that thework of the artist is the clearest example of the operationof freedom in the human spirit."

Thus the conference came back, as it closed, to the ques-tion of freedom, after long and detailed discussions of thepractical conditions for the freedoms of every day.

At the inaugural session in the Doges'Palace, Unesco'sDirector-General had also spoken of this problem and haddrawn attention to the heavy obligations which must alwaysgo with freedom."There are two ways in which the artist canbe stove", said M. Torres Bodet,"the first is if he is obligedto bow to orders outside his art ; the second is to imagine thathe is free in proportion as he rejects the rules which are thestrength of all art..."

Thornton Wilder, in his closing remarks, echoed thesewords :"Freedom presents itself to an artist, not as a void,but as a severe summons. Of all men, artists and men ofreligion have the clearest vision of what freedom is ; and welive in fear lest we abuse it."

* The original members of this Association are allthe painters. sculptors and engravers who were pre-sent at the Venice conference. From among them, anExecutive Council was elected with the following offi-cers,'president, Gino Severini (Italy), vice-president,Anàré Lhote (France), secretary-srenera, Berto Lar-dera (Italy). Its members are,'Henry Billings (U. S. A.),Marko Celelxm<Yvic (Yugoslavia), Douglas Dundas(Austria), Charles Leplae (Belgium), Yoshinobu Ma-suda (Japan), otto Skold (Sweden), Coert Steynberg<Union of South Africa), Graham Sutherland (UnitedKingdom).

HENRY

MOORE,

sculptor

GIUSEPPE

'NGARETT).

poet

ARTHUR

ONEGGER,

composer

TAHA

iUSSEIN,

writer

--

Nothing is more significant of thefragmentary character of our civiliza-tion than the separation of the arts.And, if a unity could be achieved- say in the building of a new town-and planners, architects, sculptors,painters and all other types of artistscould work together from the begin-ning, that unity would be artificial,because it was imposed on a group. ofindividuals, and not spontaneouslygenerated by a way of life.

Poetry, like art, cannot be JUdgedby criteria of practical usefulness ; butits freedom conditions all freedom.To imagine it could be divorced fromart would be an absurd denial of theautonomy of the human being, a denialof the age-old aspirations of mankind,- a denial of man, for it wouldamount to denying his claim to im-mortality. For the arts are the soleexpression of the breath of humanity,'rom which stems a duty of the State.

The number of concerts givenincreases day by day, but the numberof works performed diminishes year byyear. This applies equally to theinnumerable recitals given by pianists,who confine themselves strictly to thethree accepted composers. The publicshould be led to take the same interestin new aspects of music as in litera-ture, drama, films and painting. Andmusic should be defended against theexploitation of virtuosity in every form.

The writer's duty, though not easy tofulfil, is perfectly simple to state :to preserve his integrity. To do this,he must be honest with himself andwith others. He must unhesitatinglyreject any interference with hisliterary and artistic ideals. He mustignore threats and promises like.In these circumstances he shouldsoon come ta realize that he mustbe at the service of truth, and o'truth atone.

The theatre's spiritual aid is9reot) y needed by a sufferinghumanity. That is why thetheatre must receive gov-

___L___L'n.. L__.. _L-__ : ___1efnmento) ossistonce, preferabty through regionalrather than federal agencies. And it must be freeof political control. The theatre as a form of artsheds a light that governments should keep burningso that, at every pause of his journey, man mightlook at himself, and by what he sees, be encouragedto continue to his destiny.

The painter with a genuinelove of his art is a king in hisown right-however diminutivehis kingdom, however small hisstature. This is true royalty, and cannot be wrested

from you (the artist). You need never abdicate thethrone that you won without yiotence, and you willleave a happier memory than many a crownedmonarch, for people will understand your work andthey will feel its message-perhaps until the endof all time.

It is technically feasible toprovide ideol, well-sited housingfor whole populations within 0relatiyely short period. Nothing,............... I. 1

however, is being done. Why ? Briefly, because thepace of social readjustment in the modern world isstill teisurety. It has never speeded up to thequicker beat of the process of swift transitioninitiated by the Industrial Revolution, when thetraditional craft techniques of manufacture yieldedto the industrial technique of mass production.

MARC CONNOLLY.

dramatist

GEORGES ROUAULT,

painter

LUCIO COSTA.

architect

COURIER NOVEMBER 1952. Page 7

WOMEN'S

ACCESS TO

EDUCATION

by Jacques Guérif

THE proclamation that"everyone has thet right to education"qualified by thewords"without distinction of sex..."made by the United Nations General

Assembly when it adopted the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights in 1948, markeda world-wide condemnation of prejudices thathave existed throughout history against givingwomen equal educational opportunities withmen.

Until recent times, all countries applied quitedifferent systems of education for men and forwomen. It required all of Plato's audacity forhim to give women in his Republic an identicalrole with men, and to institute the idea ofco-education.

Manuscripts and chronicles of the MiddleAges and of the Renaissance, it is true, speakof the considerable role played by capable,courageous and enlightened women in politicallife and in art and literature, but theseremarkable women did not stop most menexpressing the view, as did Moliere's Chrysale,that"It is not right, and for many reasons, thata women should study and know so manythings."

Even philosophers and educators took along time to abandon the accepted ideas oftheir times. François Fenelon, author of aTreatise on the Education of Girls, a workconsidered very advanced in his day, declared :"Keep young women within bounds. Teachthem that their sex should regard science witha modesty almost as delicate as that whichinspires a horror of vice."And even Jean-Jacques Rousseau declared that"the virtue ofwomen is conditioned by their ignorance-anddocility."

It was not until the French Revolution that aradical change of attitude was observed. Atthat time Condorcet wrote :"Women are, likemen, reasonable beings, capable of making anintelligent contribution to the betterment ofsociety and mankind.

"So far from hindering them in their role aswife and mother, a good intellectual trainingwill make them more able in this respect-morecapable of maintaining in their husbands, andfostering among their children, a love of truthand devotion to the public weal."These views,at that time purely abstract and doctrinal, werea forecast of future evolution.

A century later, with the progress ofdemocratic ideas and also as a consequence ofgreat economic changes, this evolution began totake shape. Feminist activities were organized.Between 1875 and 1880, the fight to extendeducational opportunities to women started toshow results in the United States, England,Germany and France, with the setting up ofschools which were soon to receive officialapproval.

Primary and secondary education was openedto women in countries with more liberal ideas(but with modifications and limitations ofcurricula which often kept their education quitedifferent from that given to boys). It was notlong, however, before women, who had untilnow been refused admission to universities,won their right to higher education.

The two world wars and their concomitantloss of human life, plus the economic and social

upheavals that have come about since thebeginning of the 20th century have helped toaccentuate this evolution. Women showedthemselves to be perfectly capable of replacingmen in many types of industrial work.

New conditions of life led to greater numbersof women than ever seeking paid jobs, eitherin factories or in shops, or in the liberal andadministrative professions. Long and completestudies and professional training became indis-'Oensable to them in their new positions.

This is the state of affairs in the moreprogressive countries. But how about the lessdeveloped ones, which are now striving to makeup for lost time ? There it is generally realizedthat, without the support of women, there canbe no victory in the fight which these variouscountries are conducting against poverty andignorance.

But here the problem is a double one, forthe education of young women must go hand-in-hand with the task of giving adults anelementary knowledge of hygiene, child-care,domestic economy, rural and industrial work.

New conditions of life have led more and more women to enter professions and take on jobs tradition-ally reserved for men. But women are still frequently handicapped in their careers by discrimination.

Events which have changed the face of theworld have also brought womén face-to-facewith situations which are entirely new to themand to which they must now adapt themselves.This adaptation, in other words, has become amatter of practical necessity which has leftquestions of principles behind it.

It is not enough to recognize the need forwomen's right to education ; it is also necessaryto. decide what measures must be taken toensure their access to it. The difficulties of apedagogical order which today prevent compul-sory schooling from becoming universal-insufficient schools and shortage of teachers-are often serious, but are not factors whichseem to affect girls any more than they do boys,except where the shortage of girls'schools ismore pronounced than those for boys in placeswhere the separation of the sexes is rigorouslyapplied, even in elementary schooling.

The basic reasons for the inequality of thesexes in the matter of schooling, and the earlytermination of study by girls, are due partly tothe financial position of parents, and partly tothe customs of countries and to popular opinionwhich may be more or less favourable to theemancipation of women and their participationin certain fields of activity which have for longbeen regarded as the exclusive province of men.The reasons, then, are economic and social-two factors which work together and whichcannot easily be dissociated.

Obviously, going to a professional or othertraining college often entails heavy expense forthe maintenance of the student, perhaps in acity a long way from his parents'home. Whenthe parents have not enough money to enableall their children to do this, the girls findthemselves at a disadvantage with the boys,who usually get priority.

Even when this choice has not to be made,girls still tend to prefer a training that isshorter and less costly, such as for a commercialcareer. Also the parents are sometimes morewilling to make sacrifices to ensure their sons'education because the possibilities open towomen are more limited than those for men,despite the fact that the knowledge requiredand certificates bestowed on both are exactlythe same.

Again, women often abandon their careersafter marriage, and therefore people usuallythink it is not worthwhile to give them a longand costly professional training which theywill not use to earn a living.

An important indication of the willingness ofgovernments to give practical effect to theprinciple of equal educational opportunities forwomen as proclaimed in the Universal Decla-ration was given by the recent InternationalConference on Public Education, held inGeneva. Here 102 educators representing51 countries chose this subject as their maindiscussion theme. Emphasizing that the solu-tions envisaged must be adapted to localconditions in each country, they suggested somesteps that could be taken to overcome existingprejudices and obstacles.

They declared that, in the drawing up ofplans for making education free and obligatory,the provision of facilities for girls must betreated with exactly the same priority as thosefor boys. The same needs must be keptin mind when it is intended to build or opennew schools and to employ more teachers.Even taking into account the special coursewhich prepares girls for their role in the familyand in the community, length of compulsoryeducation should be the same for both sexes.

Similar qualifications should mean similardegrees and positions. Young women shouldhave the same advantages as young men in theway of scholarships and allowances, so thatthey, too, can complete their studies withoutfacing extra difficulties on the secondary,professional, technical and higher educationallevels.

In spite of the problems that arise inconnection with the free access of women toall levels of instruction, as well as giving themfull civic and social responsibilities, there is nobasic difference between the aims of educationfor women and of education for men. Eachmust become capable of thinking for himselfor herself, of understanding the modern world'as well as his or her own heritage of culture,and of taking part actively in the life of hisor her country while remembering the role itmust play in the family of nations.

Monsieur Pascal, the teacher in"Ecole Buissonnière", give

AFTER being a cinema critic inMontevideo for nearly 15years, and before that a

cinema fan for almost as long, Iwent to London in the middle ofthe last war. Soon my interest inmoving pictures dropped to anunforeseen extent.

The events of everyday life in astruggling city became to meactually far more absorbing thanthe screen exploits I used toadmire in the provincial peace ofmy childhood and early. youth.Even the magic of some well-remembered lyrical film'wouldappear quite thin when comparedto the poetic stature people aroundme seemed to acquire under theever-present impact of death.

Mine was not an individualexperience. It happened to millionsof people during the last ten or 15years. Eventually its consequenceswere to provoke a crisis in thecinema industry, faced nowadayswith dwindling box-Office receiptsall over the world. The factory ofwonders seems to have lost its oldappeal, or at least to have let lifesupersede it.

For, along with all its horrors,wonders never ceased to crop upduring the last war, and have neverceased since. The greatest feats ofthe war are still too preposterousto be re-created before the Klieglights. In the imagination ofmillions of people, the miracles ofantibiotics, rocket weapons, jetplanes and of atomic developmentshave become a challenge to thetired wonders of life in Technicolor.

New elements are added to thischallenge every day. The future ischarged with suspense. On thepurely mechanical side, sciencefiction on the screen has not dealteven adequately with the excitingprospect that space ships andinterplanetary trips offer to pro-ducers.

What kind of super-wonder couldthe cinema invent now to competewith contemporary events andexert once again the hypnoticattraction it once had for themasses ? The answer to this ques-tion was clear enough in 1940, whenJohn Ford made The Grapes ofWrath and presented man as afully-sledged creature that we couldrecognize and feel identified with,and not just a figment of thescreenwriter's imagination.

More than ever man, amidst themagnificent nightmare of hispresent life, now needs to knowhimself, to look into himself. Thescreen can help him to do this witha strength and urgency no otherart could equal.

It is now some 30 years since thedocumentary cinema, under thebanner of Flaherty, began to pavethe way for the introduction ofman in films-absurd as this word"'introduction"may sound to somepeople. But Flaherty looked forreal and vivid media quite exoticto most of us ; the snows of thefrozen North, the stony fields ofAran, the Indian jungle, theswamps of Louisiana.

Another school of documentary

films flourished in England duringthe war, depicting Britain underthe stress of battle-still a fa-bulous adventure from the stand-point of ordinary life, for all theexacting organization, social aswell as technical, that went into it.In many post-war feature films asuperficial preoccupation with thedocumentary had led directors togive us real locations-althoughvery rarely real characters or reac-tions.

Thus, apart from a few out-standing exceptions, the docu-mentary at its best has beeha lesson-vital, perceptive andpoetic, as well as informative-onthe unusual and extraordinary,either in background or way of life.

What we apparently needed,though, was to go back to theordinary and extract from it newsources of enjoyment and of confid-ence in mankind. The.'neo-realistic"film, as critics called itfrom the start, sprang from thisnecessity. It concerned itself with

an interpretation of the individualcalled, in a revolting cliché,"thecommon man"-the Western com-mon man and his circumstance,spiritual as well as geographicaland social.

As in a few memorable aims ofthe"silent"era, man became inthis type of film no longer a pretextto serve the mechanics of fiction,but the central element, the verysoul of the work. The differencebetween the present and the pastis that in silent films, with theirstar system, man invariably turnedinto an archetype. Chaplin gaveus his romantic tramp ; Fairbankshis Quixote in plus-fours.

Only a score of films in post-waryears have really succeeded inmaking heroes of each one of us-with all our defects, hopes andanxieties. Most of these films havemet with universal success. Indepicting man and his present, aswell as his eternal, plight withnobility they have invariably struckthe note of Human Rights, asdefined in the United NationsUniversal Declaration.

This is a curious and generally

unnoticed fact, and a most en-couraging one. Yet facts mustneeds be illustrated with examples.Here are some, chosen at random.

The Italian, De Sica, one of thecreators of the'''neo-realistic''school, dealt with the rights towork and to an adequate standardof living in Bicycle Thieves, andwith the child's right to educationand welfare in the unforgettableSciuscia-a theme Bunuel wasgoing to enlarge upon in Losolvidados.

The racial side of Human Rightswas the particular province of ahost of brilliant Hollywood direct-ors-Elia Kazan, de Rochemont,Clarence Brown-in a series offilms on the Negro which wentfrom the slightly conventional tothe absolute genuine in spirit. Apoignant British work, Cry, theBeloved Country, adapted fromthe novel of the same name, hasrecently been added to the list.

The right to protection of themoral and material interests re-sulting from a scientific productionwas at the core of that brilliantsatire, The Man in the White Suit,although this film does not entire-ly belong in the new movement.A minor, sincere work of BernardMiles, Chance of a Lifetime, treatedthe collective rights of workers andthe right to own property"inassociation with others". In Jus-tice est fate, another film whichenters into a more conventionalcategory, Cayatte dealt with theright to the law's protection.

Now the main preoccupation ofthe producers and directors ofthese films was not to illustratecertain aspects of the HumanRights enumerated in the UniversalDeclaration. But it is symptomaticof the vital importance these rightshave on the lives of us all that,implicitly or explicitly, they arepresent in such significant worksof the contemporary cinema.

Nor is this likely to be a merecoincidence during a passing trend.Television will eventually devise anew type of factual film with adirect appeal to its living-roomaudiences. This low-budgeted,quickly-made film will have todepend on some special intimatequality communicable to the half-dozen people who form the averageTV audience.

It is quite probable that modernman, with his problems, his rights,and all that forms the complicatedtexture of our lives, will be themain theme of that special formof drama.

The sooner studio executivesrealize there is a new glamour onthe way-a glamour that is cheaperbut, except for men of greatartistic integrity, far more elusivethan the one they imposed on thepublic for so long-the better forthe education of the masses, tosay nothing of the film makers'threatened finances.

As it changes its mood andcontent, the cinema cannot buthelp the implementation of HumanRights. The prospect before us is,in this respect, quite stimulating.

Albert, the school dunce, is a bitter and unhappy boy vwhole outlook changes when he gets understanding treat

A scene in"Broken Barrier''-Maoris cook food byhot water vapour in a"hangi", or trench, during a tribal cere

In addition to offering a lesson in racial harmony,"Broken

The'dunce'knew his lesson

tiers", gives popular lessons. When possible, the practical replaces the theoretical.

appy boy whosemding treatment.

Schooling takes on new interest when everyone can share inbuilding a hydro-electric motor with improvised equipment.

k food by usingtribal ceremony.

Tom Sullivan, the European journalist and Rowi, the Maorinurse,. meet for the first time. Love overcomes race prejudice.

y,"Broken Barrier"presents a magnificent documentary record of New Zealand life.

M f PASCAL was a young man who,after passing out of a French*"*'* Teachers'Training College inJuly 1914, was immediately mobilized intothe Army.

The day he should have been takinghis first class, he was fighting in theBattle of the Marne, and during the nextfour years his only pupils were the menhe commanded.

He was wounded, spent a long time inhospital and finally came back intocivilian life with a desire"finally to do myjob as a school teacher, to work for abetter way of things and to start every-thing afresh with children, for theyare a beginning in themselves."

The film Ecole Buissonnière tells whathappens to M. Pascal after he is sent toa village named Salezes, in the moun-tainous part of Provence. The villagersare friendly but rather suspicious of the"new methods"which the teacher be-lieves will help to make him liked andunderstood by the children, and whichalso will help to develop their qualitiesand youthful intelligence.

Pascal's ideas are very different fromthose of the former village teacherwhose guiding principles might well besummed up as : order, punishments,discipline, texts learned by heart andarms folded in class.

The new master soon wins over thechildren to his ways, but a section of thevillage remains hostile, as does one of theboys, Albert, the dunce who has alreadyfailed three times to obtain his generalcertificate of education.

But there are certain extenuatingcircumstances in Albert's case. People inthe village say of him :"Oh ! he's theson of a man who never came to much,and who was killed in the war."

To such people Pascal retorts :"He'sthe son of a hero."Finally, with muchdifficulty, the teacher wins Albert overto his side.

But resistance to the'''now methods"increases and the threat that he will besent elsewhere if he persists, drives theteacher to make a risky wager. Offeringto let all his eligible pupils, includingAlbert, sit for the general education cer-tificate examination, Pascal says that ifone of them fails he will ask for his owntransfer to another school.

Albert is, of course, the shakiest of thecandidates. Though he has made someprogress since his previous examinationfailures, he is still weak on history andhe can remember neither the date of theBattle of Agincourt nor when Louis XIVdied.

In geography he is even wider of themark. When the examiner asks him thespecious question :"What is the name ofthe mountain which separates Francefrom England ?" he replies"Waterloo."

But he does know, however, that"every Frenchman has the right to speak,write and print freely."As the examinershows surprise that he is so well versedin this particular subject, Albert tellshim :"That is in the Declaration of theRights of Man."

On this question, Albert's knowledgeseems inexhaustible."The Rights ofMan", he says,"also means women'srights, and those of children too. Ofcourse, I've only just found out aboutthis. Before, all I heard about were myduties. Nobody ever mentioned rights."

Unfortunately, Albert is stumped whenthe examiner asks him the date of theDeclaration of the Rights of Man and isBnce more thrown on the defensive.

"I'm trying to talk to you with myheart more than with memory", he says."I've remembered everything I've un-derstood. I didn't know the date ofthe Battle of Agincourt, but I do knowwhat Human Rights are :'All humanbeings are born free and equal in dignityand rights... everyone is free to holdopinions without interference.'"

Finally, Albert's eloquence on the-subject of Human Rights wins the day.He and all the other boys from thevillage school pass the examination, thus.winning a victory for Pascal's ideas.

Jean-Paul Le Chanois, who wrote thescenario and dialogue for the film, tellsa moving little story about the shootingof this particular scene in the studios atNice. The boy who was playing the roleof Albert found the texts from the De-claration of the Rights of Man difficultto enunciate, and it was only when theexamination scene was being shot forthe third time that the boy said his linesperfectly.

While this was going on a remarkableatmosphere reigned through'out thestudio. The studio technicians, carpent-ers, electricians and others who normallygo about their business without payingtoo much attention to what is happeningon the set, stopped to listen and watch.As the shout of"cut"brought theshooting to a close, the chief electricianturned to Le Chanois and said :"I wassure he wouldn't make a mistake thattime... I was saying the words along withhim."

When the film was completed, all thosewho had shared in its production- workers, technicians and actors-attended the traditional dinner tocelebrate the occasion. But this timethose present did not sing the songswhich usually conclude the dinner.Instead, recalling the scene in the film,they got up, one after the other, toexpound the rights proclaimed in 1789 inFrance's Declaration of the Rights ofMan..

Breaking down race barriers

B ROKEN BARRIER", a dramatic fea-ture film made by Roger Mirams,a New Zealand film producer,

deals with the subject of racial relationsbetween Maoris and Europeans, and pre-sents a striking example of how Article 2of the Universal Declaration of HumanRights (Everyone is entitled to all therights and freedoms... without distinctionof any kind... such as race, colour...) isapplied in New Zealand.

Full legal and political equality for theMaoris has existed in New Zealand formany years, and is taken for granted.They elect their own members of par-liament, every profession is open tothem and they have achieved distinctionin'all fields.

Yet though the film indicates clearlyenough the very harmonious race rela-tions between Maoris and Europeans, acertain amount of prejudice and colourconsciousness does exist at the level ofpersonal and social relationships, suchas those brought about by intermarriagebetween Maoris and Europeans.

Broken Barrier tells a simple, ro-mantic story of a young Maori girl, thedaughter of a well-to-do farming family,who meets a European, a journalistwhose parents are conservative middleclass people. When the young coupledecide to marry, they meet oppositionfrom their parents.

The success of the film, which isshowing in crowded cinemas in NewZealand, demonstrates that this parti-cular problem, though some peoplediscuss it less openly than others, doesstill exist.

Some of the actors are professional orsemi-professional players, but most ofthose who appear were recruited on the

spot. The film story is told against awide background of contemporary NewZealand life.

From scenes filmed on the coast andon a large Maori sheep and cattle farm.the story moves to Wellington, the ca-pital city and then to Rotorua, a regiormuch visited by tourists. The cameragoes into Maori and European homes,hospitals and country schools, so thatwhile telling a story of conflict caused bycolour, it also presents a fine docu-mentary record of New Zealand.

The idea for making Broken Barriercame from a former member of the FilmDivision of Unesco, Mr. Gordon Mirams,who was in Paris in 1948 when theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightswas adopted there by the United Na-tions General Assembly.

On his return to New Zealand, wherehe. is now Chief Government Censor andRegistrar of Films, Mr. Mirams suggestedto his brother, Roger, that he shouldmake a film illustrating Article 2 of theUniversal Declaration.

Roger Mirams, working with anotheryoung New Zealander, John O'Shea, whobecame co-producer, director and script-writer, carried out the venture. Themusical score by Sydney John Kay, anAustralian composer, is largely based on-traditional Maori folk melodies.

Those who see this film when it isshown in other countries will agree withthe mother of the young Maori girl whenshe says..."There will be difficulties... butwe have all come a long way."She isspeaking not only for the young couplewho have decided to go ahead and marry,but also for the people of New Zealandas a whole and for all the peoples of theworld to whom the Universal Declarationis addressed.

Page 10. NOVEMBER 1952

THE RIGHT TO UNDERSTAND

ONE human instinct that sets man apartfrom most beasts is curiosity. And theone inborn trait of mankind, shared by

all peoples at all times, is intelligence.The use of his intelligence to satisfy his

curiosity has brought man understanding ofthe world he lives in. In such measure ashe understands nature, he has created civiliza-tion and enriched his life.

Indeed, those human cultures that havemost encouraged unlimited curiosity andhave best organized their intelligence forexercizing it are the ones that have profitedmost in wealth and health, in power andleisure and, as a result during the pastcentury, in economic and political advantageover other cultures. It has been the rewardof understanding the material world.

But the right to understanding is not aspecial privilege. In a de-mocratic world it must be asuniversal as is the instinct ofcuriosity. It is covered by Article27 of the Declaration of HumanRights in the words :"Everyonehas the right freely to parti-cipate in the cultural life of thecommunity, to enjoy the artsand to share in scientificachievement and its benefits."

To participate fully in modernlife and to share in its achieve-ments is impossible withoutunderstanding the physicalworld, the nature of life andthe behaviour of people. Andthe key to understanding is asuniversal among men as hungeritself : it is the hunger of themind, curiosity.

Every infant satisfies thisinstinct by the use of all hissenses. He sees and observes,he listens, he touches and feels,he tastes and tries to ealwhatever is within his reach.Later he explores the room andthe house, reaching for every-thing, tearing and pounding tofind out what things are madeof.

When he learns to speak heasks questions endlessly. It is awonderful world, so full ofmysteries, yet satisfying if hefeeds his mind as well as hisbody. He has all the joy of anexplorer. He is a born scientistand uses the direct method ofresearch.

It does not always last. Somechildren, with minds not sohungry, are easily satisfied.,... I,., I.They lose interest in what is over the hill oracross the seas, what makes plants grow andmachines work, or why people act as they do.But'most children lose their curiosity moregradually by a kind of second-hand satisfac-tion when they begin to learn from books orfrom their teachers. Then the answerscome easily and it is not hard to believe whatone reads or is told.

This is the only practical way to learn theaccumulated wisdom of the ages. It wouldbe impossible to rediscover everything forone's self. In fact, human progress dependsentirely on the fact that each generation canlearn from the one before and go on fromthere.

Yet it is dangerous too, because there re-mains so much that no one knows, andbecause much of our supposed knowledge isnot true. Once evervone knew that the earthwas flat and that man cannot fly. Bothwere wrong, of course. And so too, muchthat is taught today is almost certainlyuntrue.

That is the danger of having one's innatecuriosity satisfied by the authority of others.It is the danger of accepting half-knowledgeand tradition and prejudice instead of proof.It is the danger of accepting knowledgeinstead of understanding.

The only protection against this danger isto keep alive the instinct of curiosity, which

by Dr Gerald Wendt

will for ever ask :"How do you know ?-What is the proof ?-Can we make a testthat will show whether you are right orwrong ?" From such questions modernscience has learned the truth. They wereasked by Copernicus and Newton, Columbusand Pasteur, Lavoisier and Einstein. Like allgreat scientists, they were men of undyingcuriosity and so created our modern age.

They lived in a culture where curiosity wasencouraged. On the other hand, the culturesthat depended on memorizing from books andlectures, that depended wholly on believingwhat the, wise men said, that discouragedcuriosity and experimenting, are the culturesin which science has been foreign anddevelopment in modern terms has been slow.

The right to participate in modern cultureand to share in the achievements of modern

The key to understanding is as universal among men as hunger itself ; it is hungerof the mind-curiosity. Humanity can solve its problems if curiosity is not hampered.

it every year with the assurance that theywill be repaid many times over by the newunderstanding of nature that the researcheswill bring and the new power and wealththat will result.

But, quite naturally, great researches anddiscoveries also bring great new problems.They are not always in the physical world.Indeed, more and more they raise problems inhuman life and in social institutions.

The development of atomic energy is ilstriking example. The conquest of diseasehas increased the number of persons livingon the earth and has brought, or will yetbring, enormous problems in how to providethem all with food. Quick transportation andinstant communication have made the worldso small that we are all neighbours and whathappens across the seas concerns us all.

Starvation, disease and ignor-ance in any part of the worldare a challenge to every nation,no matter how prosperous.

Three specialized agencies ofthe United Nations-FAO,WHO and Unesco-have beencreated to deal with them.They all face problems that gofar beyond physical knowledge.Yet they are confident thatresearch can find the answers.

Those who know science onlyas a source of material wealthand physical power often fear itbecause of the human andsocial problems that it creates.But all who have lived withscience and worked in it knowthat the secret of its succes isthe research method, that cheer-ful and confident attitudetowards all problems, the abilityto fiind the facts and face themtoo, the habit of doubting andquestioning and testing allhuman knowledge, no matterhow ancient and how well-established.

Those who have worked inresearch are not dismayed bythe new social problems. Theyexpect them, indeed they wel-come them and are sure they toocan be evolved.

It is true, however, that this ismuch easier to do in the phy-sical and natural sciences thanit is in human affairs. Newknowledge about the stars andthe rocks is easy to accept. Butin human and social affairs,where there have been no Scion-tific answers, men have long

had their opinions which by now are firmlyestablished,'whether right or wrong. Ittakes courage to question them and evenmore to accept new understanding.

For instance, it has been said that thehuman being is born aggressive, thathostility is innate, and that even war isnatural. But modern research has provedthat children are naturallv friendly and so-cial, and that aggressive behaviour is acquir-ed or learned during the frustrations of a badenvironment.

It is human to be peaceful, not hostile.This is a little hard for most people to believe,because they have already learned the oppo-site, and must first unlearn the untruth.

So also rye !"search has shown that all humanraces are alike in inborn traits and abilities.

Humanity will solve the intimate questionsof human life and the vital problems ofgetting along together in groups and innations, if the instinct of curiosity is nothampered and if every resource of intelli-gence is applied with the same skill andstrategy that have enabled science to under-stand the physical world.

In the small crowded world of today, anawith vast powers for both good and evil inour hands, it is essential that we learn tounderstand all men and all nations. Theright to understand is one of the basic HumanRights.

science is the right to understanding, and thisis based on the right to unlimited curiosity.It is the natural birthright of every child,everywhere on earth. It is a right that wiseparents, teachers and governments willmaintain and encourage.

If there is no limit to curiosity, is there thenno end to questions and problems ? Sincethe universe is infinite there can be no end.Beyond every mountain there is another tobe explored. When the whole earth has beenmapped we have neighbouring planets toexplore.

Every research question answered bringsmore questions to answer. Beyond the solarsystem are the stars, beyond them the ga-laxies, beyond them whole universes ofunknown stars. Within each object are themolecules, then, farther in, the atoms, andwithin them electrons and protons. Eitheroutward or inward investigation finds newfacts but also new mysteries. There is noend.

All this is readily admitted with respect tothe physical and material world. The me-thod of exploration has been refined to a verysuccessful strategy and technique of research,often called the"scientific method"because ithas been successful in providing the sureknowledge that is called science.

It has been so fabulouslv successful thatthousands of millions of dollars are spent on

J'UNESCC

>URIERNESCC

A new generation hears about its rights-and duties. The teacher has not only a good opportunity, but also a great responsibility for helping the child towards aknowledge of Human Rights, and an understanding of what they mean in the practical term of daily life. But such instruction is still lackina in man v !' : hnnl..

HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CLASSROOM

I THE children in the elementary class werehaving their daily period of news report-. ing. One of the girls read out a newspaper

item which said that the president of theircountry was planning to make a visit abroad.

"Yes !", commented one of the children,"healways goes on trips and spends a lot of govern-ment money."

"If you were president,"said the teacher,"would you spend the government's money inthis way ?"

From this moment on it was a verbal free-for-all, with every child offering his or her opinion.Finally, the teacher interrupted.

"I am not sure whether the president is rightor not,"she said,"but I am sure that ours is agreat form of government. And do you knowwhy ? What we are doing and saying here couldnever happen in some other countries. If itwere, We might all go to gaol."

As all the children looked incredulous, theteacher continued :"You see, in some countriesit is a crime to talk against the government orpersons in authority. In a democratic one likeours, you are free to criticize. You will not goto gaol for it.

"This freedom is one of the Human Rights.You are free to receive or give ideas in any way.This Human Right is called freedom of speech.Do you have this freedom ?"

"Yes !" chorused the children."Then,"asked the teacher,"can you give me

an example ?""Well,"said one child,"in one of the daily

papers, there is a column entitled.'We, ThePeople'. My father said that you can write tothat column and complain about anything."

Another said,.'In a radio programme, I heardthe announcer criticize the mayor of the city."

"Do you like our form of government ?" askedthe teacher.

The unanimous reply put the finishing touch tothis lesson.

What went on in this particular classroom wasjust one example of the many methods teachersemploy to bring home to their classes themeaning of Human Rights. For it is first of allin school that a systematic approach can be madeto teaching about Human Rights.

From the time a ; child begins his educationuntil he finishes it as an adolescent or a youngadult, it is the teacher who has a good oppor-

tunity and great responsibility for helpinghim towards a knowledge of Human Rights, andan understanding of what they mean in thepractical terms of daily life.

Of course, the work of spreading knowledge ofthe Universal Declaration of Human Rightsthroughout the world cannot be left to schoolsalone. All men and women should know andunderstand it in order to exercise their rights andto assume the responsibilities which they imply.Since 1948, when the Declaration was adopted,the United Nations has made every effort todisseminate this knowledge as widely as possible.

But if teaching about rights began with youngpeople, the results would be far more effective andlasting, and it is in this connection that educationhas a vital role to play. It can give to the indi-vidual not only the knowledge, but also the atti-tudes and social values which are indispensableto an understanding of, and respect for, HumanRights. But, unfortunately, school programmesin many places have not yet been altered to makeroom for Human Rights teaching.

It is obvious that the development of teachingabout Human Rights is greatly aided in countrieswhere tolerance and mutual respect betweendifferent nationalities and beliefs is stressed. Ithas also been helped in some countries by theinclusion in civic or history textbooks of factsabout the main international organizations thathave been set up since the war.

Teachers'organizations have stressed the needfor the existence and activities of such organi-zations to be made more widely known inschools. They have suggested that one reasonfor lack of knowledge is that organizations aremore often than not referred to by their initialsonly-which convey nothing to children-and tothe fact that, with some exceptions, children haveno contact with them. Most of them also agreethat the text of the Universal Declaration isabove the heads of children in their charge.

The subject of Human Rights is complex andcontroversial. Teaching about them is an inno-vation for many systems of education. Thus,before such teaching can be carried out effectivelyon a world scale, there are many problems to besolved.

It was to help in the solution of these problemsthat Unesco recently organized a Seminar onEducation for Living in a World Community, withspecial reference to the principles of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, at Woudschoten,Zeist, in Holland.

One of the fundamental objectives of Unesco'sprogramme is to make Human Rights principlesmore widely known and observed. Since theproclamation of the Universal Declaration,Unesco has undertaken many activities aimed atthe dissemination and implementation of itsprinciples, and it is even true to say that allUnesco's work serves this purpose directly orindirectly.

Among the most effective of Unesco's educa-tional methods are international seminars-meetings attended by specialists and teachersselected by the governments of Member States.Those participating make a practical study ofgiven problems, pool their experience andcompare their ideas, seek the most effectivemethods, and prepare materials appropriate forthe techniques thus evolved.

The seminar at Woudschoten was not the firstorganized by Unesco for the study of educationfor living in a world community. The 63 edu-cators who met in Holland under the leadershipof Dr. C. E. Beeby, Director of Education for NewZealand, benefitted by the experience gained atearlier seminars organized in France, Czecho-slovakia, England, the United States of America,Canada and Belgium since 1947.

No general doctrine relative to teaching aboutHuman Rights has come out of these meetings,but they have produced a number of principlesand techniques which can help to form the basisfor such a doctrine.

Here are some of the conclusions reached bythe teachers and educators meeting at Woud-schoten :

To the question : Is it possible effectively toeducate children under 12 in the spirit and prin-ciples of the Universal Declaration ?, the answerof the seminar group concerned was"Yes-providing that a number of special factors areborne in mind."

During this first stage of schooling, the childis still too immature for abstract thought, and forthis reason no direct or systematic teaching aboutthe text of the Universal Declaration should beattempted.UoVVç, u.. J.. 1JVt ; u..

Certain activities, however, canbe used to develop attitudes andhabits consonant with the prin-ciples of Human Rights. On the

Continuedon next

page.

NOVEMBER 1952. Page II

Page 12. NOVEMBER 1952 UNESCO

TEACHING ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS

(Continued from previous page)

basis of these, an intellectual understanding ofthe Universal Declaration can be established laterin the educational process.

For instance, certain free activities can beintroduced into the school programmes whichwill enable the teacher to discover the child'sindividual personality. He can be given certainresponsible jobs, such as helping to keep the lib-rary neat, and even join in social services whichextend beyond the school itself, including assist-anCe to old people and invalids, and to needyschools. Debating clubs and teamwork projectscan also be organized.

Members of the seminar group dealing withthe education of ahildren aged from 12 to 15 yearsemphasized that the text of the Universal De-claration is, because of its legal and abstractcharacter, still beyond the intellectual grasp ofchildren of these ages. They felt that what wasneeded was a version reducing the Declaration toits essentials, and revolving around four mainconcepts : freedom, equality and justice, fra-ternity and solidarity, and duty to the community.These ideas, which are familiar to children, pro-vide a firm basis for teaching about HumanRights.

It is the teacher's task to prepare the child toexercise, demand and deserve Human Rights. Toexercise Human Rights is, first, to understandtheir meaning, and second, to apply the principlesof Human Rights to daily living. To demandthem is to work with faith and courage for therealization of the ideals of the Universal Decla-ration in national and international life. Todeserve Human Rights is to carry out the duties----'I----------'_. !'. !.. LJ---'l....' ! _"L..-----and responsibilities which corres-pond with them.

For the achievement of thesepurposes, the teacher must arousein his pupils an active sympathyfor the principles of HumanRights. This does not mean thatchildren should be subjected to acampaign of blind propaganda ; onthe contrary, the true situation ofHuman Rights in the world todaymust be made clear to them.

For example, the great differencebetween a statement of principles,such as the Universal Declaration,and a binding treaty, such as theprojected U. N. Covenant on. Human Rights should be explained,and pupils must be made consciousof the fact that rights can be lostunless they are defended wheneverand wherever necessary. Theteacher should show that it hasalways been necessary to defendHuman Rights.

Most courses of study in the tra-ditional school curriculum provide-----. L..-' :"" :'-- --... 11____1__' : _--. L'L.-opportunities for developing the concept ofHuman Rights in the minds of the pupils. Forexample, in geography, lessons about the livingconditions of people in under-developed countriesgive the teacher a chance to stress the needs andrights of those handicapped by want, ignoranceor disease.

In history, the story of slavery will naturallydirect the attention of the class to the principle

that no person should be held in servitude. Inliterature, the lives and works of writers whohave fought for Human Rights offer richresources.

When it came to considering how HumanRights can contribute to better internationalunderstanding, the group started off by reviewingsome of the objectives of education for living in aworld community. To be a good citizen of anation where Human Rights are respected wasto be a citizen of the world community, theydeclared.

The schools must contribute to the develop-ment of free, independent personalities (whichwere nevertheless capable of self-discipline forthe good of the community). Teachers musttrain future citizens who would defend and workfor Human Rights in international as well asnational life.

The third seminar group, which was concernedwith education for young people aged between15 and 18, began its work by considering theenvironment in which youth lives in differentparts of the world. Folk and social traditions,family customs, religion, philosophy and thepolitical and economic organization of life invarious countries were studied, each membercontributing information about his own nation.

One of the educational methods most appro-priate to children in their teens, they declar-ed, is group discussion. It is largely by this thatthe pupils begin to formulate and to make precisethe nature of the problems which face them, tosift and evaluate their experiences, and to thinkcreatively. In group discussion they acquirehabits of mutual respect, tolerance, intellectualintegrity and co-operation.

Members of the Unesco Seminar on Education for Living in a World Communitywere received by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands at her Soestdijk residence.Photo shows Queen Juliana (centre) with, on her right, M. Jaime Torres Bodet,Unesco's Director-General, and, on her left, Dr Beeby, who headed the seminar.

Even very young children can be shown their rightsand responsibilities. At the school where thisphoto was taken, the children have already begunto develop the fundamental civic qualities-respectfor the rights of others, a sense of solidarity, disci-pline and responsibility, as well as a sinking ofindividual interests for the sake of the general good.

Another most instructive and convincingmethod is experimentation. One conclusiveexample of this was provided by a social studiesclass (ages about 16-17) which was engaged in astudy of democracy and dictatorship. A numberof students expressed dissatisfaction withdemocracy because of its alleged inefficiency.Dictatorship was more efficient, they said, ingetting things done. They suggested that moredictation by the teacher and less student parti-cipation might be desirable in their own class.

The teacher proposed that the class be operatedas a dictatorship for two weeks. At the end ofthis time, the students were to choose whichmethod they preferred for the rest of the year.

The students accepted the proposal eagerly,and the teacher did his part in thorough-goingfashion. He strictly proscribed all class activities.He acted as sole judge of all debatable ques-tions. He even appointed two students to serveas.'secret police"and to report to him daily onthe private actions of their classmates. Eachclass period opened with the teacher's reading ofthese reports.

Most of the students were ready to end theexperiment at the end of the first week, but the"teacher-dictator"was unyielding. At the endof two weeks, the class voted unanimously toreturn to its accustomed democratic procedures.

But not all aspects of Human Rights teachingcan or should be based on group activity. Thepupil is not only a member of a community, butalso an individual in his own right, and he mustbe given the opportunity to develop his ownpersonality fully and freely. For example, in thecultivation of taste in art, music and poetry, thepupil should be allowed to pursue his owninterests and to express himself creativelywithout being subject to group pressures orevaluations. There are times, too, when the ado-lescent needs to work alone at a given problem.

But there are many activities which may pro-vide experience of co-operation with others, suchas debates, panel discussions, the commemoration

Through group discussions children acquire habitsof mutual respect, tolerance, and co-operation-allvaluable assets to aid their understanding anddaily observation of the principles of Human Rights.

Many activities which involveco-operation between home,school and community can beorganized. In some schools, youthcouncils have been formed to de-termine the extent to whichHuman Rights are enjoyed by allwho live in the community.

The role of the teacher In theseexperiences is highly important.He can join with the group inplanning and executing activities,and should demonstrate throughhis own personality and behaviourthe meaning of respect for HumanRights.

Also it was felt pupils in the15-18 age group could study thetext of the Declaration with profit.They should be made thoroughlyfamiliar with its special, political,and philosophical implication.Whether this study should formpart of the civics, his. tory or socialsciences course was a matter forthose responsible for planningcurricula.

.. .. L- <In--------L1-. __-------.....But in the 15 to 18 age group there are manywho are not continuing with their schooling foreconomic or other reasons. However, they tooneed to be given opportunities to learn about theUniversal Declaration. The way to solve thisproblem was to rely on youth organizations andother voluntary agencies. Where such agenciesdo not exist, the educational authorities shouldassume responsibiilty.

A survey carried out in 13 countries by aninternational federation of teachers'associations. showed that, generally speaking, both the autho-rities and the teachers are sympathetic towardsteaching about Human Rights. But in someplaces there is still much to be done to remove anall-too-frequent apathy or passive tolerance.

Teachers in one country reported :"We receiveneither encouragement nor discouragement fromthe authorities or the children's families. WhatWe do meet is passive resistance, reinforced by asuperficial scepticism. Those who express itpoint to existing situations in the world whichcounter the Declaration's egalitarian theories".

Those in another country declared :"Teachershere just cannot forget that many of their pupilslead lives of terrible hardship, and that it isdifficult to teach respect for Human Rights tochildren whose most elementary rights are notrespected."

Practical solutions have been suggested bythe Secretary-General of an international fede-ration of teachers'associations, who declared :

"We have to win the support of the teachers,first by giving them information, and then bygiving them help. Most teachers regard the taskas impossible, do not know where to begin, andgive up the attempt. They need to be providednot only with literature on the subject, but alsowith teaching aids suitable for young children.

"The task will take some time, and should beundertaken jointly by the teachers'associationsand the teachers'training colleges. The respon-sible authorities should be persuaded to giveencouragement, assistance, and, if necessary,official instruction."

of special days, the publication of school news-papers and magazines, the organization of modelassemblies, amateur dramatics, experimentalwork in the natural sciences, club activities, sportsand student exchanges. ....... e...

COURIER NOVEMBER 1952. Page 13

THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION AND

THE AVERAGE MAN

Have you heard about the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights ?

Are there any rights which, in youropinion, everyone should have, no matterwhat his race, religion or country ?

Should education be made available toeveryone ?

Do you think the State should szWsidizeor maintain theatres arad museums ?

ONE Sunday morning this year, inter-viewers went into the homes ofsome 500 people in Cambridge

(England) and asked these questions andsome 20 similar ones. At about the sametime, in Upsala (Sweden) and Grenoble(France), other interviewers were carryingout the same sort of inquiry.

Putting these questions to representativesections of chosen communities in threecountries was the first step in a Unesco-sponsored survey, whose object was tofind out what people know about theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights,what they think about its principles,whether they believe these can be appliedin everyday life and, finally, whether themethods used to make known the Decla-ration are effective.

Polls of this type, often associated withthe name Gallup, have now become well-known. More than one government hasused this barometer of public opinion tomeasure its popularity and to estimatelikely reactions to measures it proposes totake. Unesco decided to employ themethod so as to clarify one of itsimportant tasks-that of making theDeclaration widely known and understood.

The countries in which the polls werecarried out are in a part of the worldwhere traditions and cultures are espe-cially favourable to a knowledge andpractice of these rights. In turn, eachof the towns selected can be said torepresent a typical cross-section of its owncountry. Furthermore all the towns haveseveral common characteristics. They areof average size, have some industry andtrade, attract tourists and possess univer-sities which enjoy international reputationsand are attended by many foreignstudents.

After the first poll was taken, a HumanRights publicity campaign was launched.This laid special emphasis on those rightswhich are most closely linked withUnesco's activities : freedom of opinionand of expression and the rights to educa-tion and culture The campaign lastedseveral weeks and used a variety of media :press, films, radio, posters, publicmeetings, lessons in the schools andlectures. Then, to measure the effects ofthe campaign, a second poll, againcovering 500 people, was taken.

From an interrogation of 500 peoplein their homes, it is possible to get agood idea of the opinions of an entiretown, providing a representative grouphas been chosen. This requires a selec-tion from the points of view of age, sex,marital status, profession and livingstandards which will present a cross-section of the community.

The professional public survey expertswho conducted the poll, assisted by teamsof volunteers, went straight to the pointof the enquiry, without mentioningUnesco, the sponsoring body. A frankconversation lasting for about half-an-hourwas generally sufficient to cover all theitems in the questionnaire which formedthe basis for the interview.

by Maxime C/ouzet

Opinions were obtained from a varietyof sources, which included housewives,university professors, industrialists, civilservants, workers and shopkeepers.During both polls, a total of 3, 000interviews took place in the threecountries. From the information thusobtained it is possible, without going intothe details of the experts'analysis, todraw several significant conclusions.

Generally speaking, the opinionsshowed a lively and varied awareness, andgave a clear indication of the relativeimportance that is attached by differentpeople to one or other of the rights andfreedoms.

One of the first questions asked was"When you hear the expression'HumanRights', are there any rights you think offirst ?" Answers received during the firstpoll are given below by percentages intable A. (Certain people gave more thanone reply.)

Was it indifference that caused a largenumber of people to give no answer tothis questions-43 per cent in Cambridgeand 40 per cent in Upsala ? Apparentlynot, judging by later questions. Manypeople may have been nonplussed by therather abstract phrasing of this questionat the start of an unexpected interro-gation. The much lower percentage inGrenoble, 14, was probably due to the fact

, could provide the means to ensure thisOpinion was 70 per cent affirmative in

Cambridge, 97 per cent in Upsala and91 per cent in Grenoble that compulsoryelementary edncation should be introducedamong all peoples and races. To thequestions :"Do you think the authoritiesshould or should not subsidize certaintheatres, set up and maintain museumsand public libraries, look after historicbuildings and monuments and providerecreation for workers ?" the affirmativereply varied between 70 and 90 per cent,and never dropped below 60 per cent.

As this showed, public interest is farfrom being confined to the traditionalfreedoms. It is greatly stimulated by theeconomic and social rights which includethe right to education, to share in thecultural life of the community, the rightto work, to social security and to a properstandard of living.

The significant replies produced by thepoll would therefore seem to justify therealistic attitude of the authors of theUniversal Declaration for their decisionto give a place in the document to these"new"rights, and thus meet the aspi-rations of modern man.

Another noteworthy result was the reac-tion to the question :"'Are you mainlysatisfied or dissatisfied with the progressmade by the United Nations in the

that people. an this city are more familiarwith the conception of Human Rights andwith the expression itself, for it was herethat the 1789 Declaration of the Rights ofMan and of the Citizen had its origin.

The positive replies were on the wholecentralized on the three rights and free-doms quoted in the first Table, which wereregarded as fundamental. These threerights were also prominent in the repliesto the following question :"Is there anyright or freedom so indispensable that noteven Parliament should have the powerto abolish it ?"

When questions were put on preciseaspects of Human Rights, the picturechanged considerably. In both Grenobleand Cambridge, 95 per cent of the peoplethought that all clever children shouldbe able to get higher education, even iftheir parents could not afford to pay.Similarly, 90 per cent in Cambridge and92 per cent in Grenoble thought the State

world ?" In Cambridge, 45 per cent weresatisfied and 32 per cent were not. Thepercentages-in Upsala and Grenoble were29 and 16, and 49 and 29 respectively.

Some of the results obtained throughthe survey were deceptive ones. Probablythe most striking are indicated in TableB above, which represent public reactionto three principles.

These three questions were put inquick succession so that the answerscame spontaneously, without people realiz-ing the conclusions that could be drawnby taking their replies literally. If theyare willing to admit theoretically theequality of all men they are less readyto accept all its practical consequenceswhen these come up against certainfundamental attitudes or deeply ingrainedprejudices.

And while 77 per cent of thosequestioned in Cambridge, 94 per cent ofthose in Upsala and 74 per cent of those

in Grenoble recognized the same rightsfor coloured people as they do for white,there is a minority who, while concedingthe equality of rights, nevertheless retainsits prejudice concerning the racial super-iority of the white peoples.

From the answers to three otherquestions it would also appear that manypeople are quick to demand freedom ofexpression for themselves, but are notalways willing to concede it to others.

The interviewers began by asking :"Isthere any kind of opinions or prejudicewhich makes you really furious, angryor depressed ?" Then they asked :"Whatsteps do you think should be taken againstpeople who openly speak in favour ofopinions which you regard as reallyinhuman ?"There were 23 per cent in Cambridge,37 per cent in Upsala and five per cent inGrenoble who wanted to take measuresto render such people harmless, while,the rest suggested either counter-pro-paganda or doing nothing at all. But thenumber of prohibitionists rose steeplywhen the case of these undesirableopinions being spread by the printed wordand through organized groups was put tothem.

As the report on the Cambridge surveydeclares :"There is, therefore, a sizeableminority of the public who would supportvigorous action against unpalatable views,and tolerance does not have muchpractical meaning for them."

The same questions as those alreadydescribed were put less than two monthslater, under the same conditions, to seewhat changes of opinions had resultedthrough the publicity campaign. In someways, definite progress had been made.

The number of people who knew of theexistence of the Universal Declaration-already fairly large at the first poll-went up 11 per cent in Cambridge, fiveper cent in Upsala and 15 per cent inGrenoble. The proportion of favourablereplies on, for instance, the efforts madefor peace by the United Nations hadincreased.

Another noticeable aspect, was thechange of opinion which brought peopleever from opposition to indecision aftersome reflection on their previous ideas.

The view that there is too muchfree, room found fewer supporters at thesecond poll. And if the campaign did notproduce a marked effect on the mostfirmly-held prejudices, it was encouragingto see that the greatest influence wasmade on young people aged between16 and 24.

All in all, the results obtained weresatisfactory, bearing in mind the shortduration of the information campaignand the limited resources possessed by theUnited Nations Associations, which carriedthem out.

Results from polls such as this givepractical guidance for the future toorganizations and individuals who, in thefields of information and education, areleading the fight to make the principlesof Human Rights a reality throughout theworld..

. :..The survey described above was carried

out for Unesco by the British Institute ofPublic Opinion, the Swedish GallupInstitute, and the French Institute ofPublic Opinion. The last.-named is toundertake a collation of the resultsobtained in the three countries.

GRENOBLE".......

While the Unesco Human Rights survey was taking placein Grenoble (Prance), posters reminded the inhabitants

of the basic principles proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of 1948.

CAMBRIDGE The people of Cambridge (England) were ready to co-operate when interviewers questioned them on their

knowledge and opinions on Human Rights. Interviews lasted about half-an-hour

Page 14. NOVEMBER 1952

THE VITALITY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION

THROUGHOUT the long process of drafting, the. Universa)Declaration was a controyersial document, sharply

challenged in its general concept and textual details.But the four years since its solemn adoption (without a singledissentient vote) by a plenary session of the U. N. General

Assembly have obscured its controyersial character. Yet, ineffect, the controversy is still with us, albeit on a differentplane, the challenge today being no longer to the contentsof the Declamation, but to its value.

The United Nations is criticized for having spent so muchtime and energy on a document which has no legally bindingforce and has failed to redeem the high promises held out

by the Charter of the United Nations for the protection of theindividual through effective international machinery.

This line of criticism rests mainly on the grounds that, in the

drafting of those additional instruments which are designedto lend legal force to the principles of the Declaration, veryreal difficulties have been encountered. As a result, despite

continuing efforts, the rhythm of our progress towards agenuine International Bill of Rights is still slow and uncertain.

The difficutties, which ore both political and technical, areundeniable. The question is : do they reflect adyersely onthe conception and utility of the Universa) Declaration itself ?

In attempting to answer that question, we must first bearin mind that the revolution intended by the Charter was,

by its nature, a long-term aHair. In its final implications,that revolution aimed at a new type of relationship betweenthe individual and the State, between the individual andinternational society, and between international society andits component units.

We have never been entitled to hope that, even if condi-tions had been normal (which they were not), these boldinitiatives could be accomplished within the short period thathas elapsed since the ratification of the Charter.

QECONDLY, the Universal Declaration was never meant tobring about, by itself, a spectacular improvement. It wasmeant to turn the Charter into a more effective instrumentin the service of humanity. By the Charter, every Statewhich had joined the United Nations was pledged to promote,

by joint and separate action, universal respect for HumanRights, and their observance ; but no State was pledged toregard as"Human'Rights"any particular group of rightsother than that which it may already have recognized in itsown laws.

A wide gap was left open for the individual interpretation,

by each State, of its obligations. The Universal Declara-tion was designed to narrow that gap by supplying a commonstandard on which all national definitions of Human Rightswere gradually to converge.

Thirdly, in o matter so essentially political as the status of

by Dr. Andrew MartinLecturer on international affairs

at Ruskin Cohere, Oxford.

Human Rights, purely legol arguments are by no meansconclusive. As a matter of strict low, no State is, as yet,under compulsion to adapt its national laws to the commonstandards established by the Universal Declaration, even

though there is considerable force in the argument that noMember of the United Nations is entitled to change its

existing laws in a manner that would amount to retrogressionfrom that standard.

A LL students of politics will agree that the conduct ofGovernments is not prompted solely by the pressure oftheir obligations under international law ; likewise, the vitalityof the Declaration cannot be measured solely in terms of its

legally compulsive force. Its impact depends, first andforemost, on its success in creating an effective demand forthe grant and observance of the rights that it proclaims.

Given an articulate demand, purposefully maintained ineach country by a growing number of individuals and groups,and given unfailing support from the appropriate organs ofthe United Nations and its Specialized Agencies, the Declare-tion is capable of exerting a vital influence on the legislativeand administrative programme of Governments.

It would have been wholly unreasonable to hope, particu-

larly in countries where political conditions are not favourableto the rapid penetration of new political conceptions into theconsciousness of the masses, that so short a time as fouryears would bring forth a pressing and articulate demand forthe Declaration being translated into actual governmental

programmes. And yet, even though the demand may not yetbe measurable everywhere, we are entitled to assume that itis in the making.

The United Nations and Unesco have mobilized truly

impressive resources to assure that the Universal Declarationshould reach every stratum of human society, even in theremotest parts of the globe. In this effort, they havereceived generous assistance from many Governments and non-

governmental agencies, including a large number of tradeunions and religious organizations and the wide network ofUnited Nations Associations. The volume of evidence

showing the effect of these labours presents a more andmore encouraging picture every year.

The impetus of the campaign is immensely strengthened

by the activities of those organs of the United Nations which,in their day-to-day work, have occasion to deal with concrete

problems affecting Human Rights. Their attitude may besummed up in one sentence : they tend to treat the UniversalDeclaration as a standard of conduct which is applicable here

and now, without waiting for the adoption of additionalinternational instruments.

That goes, in the first ploce, for the General Assemblywhich, when confronted with actuoJ complaints relating to theobservance of Human Rights-for example, the treatmentof national minorities, the protection of immigrating tobourfrom discriminatory practices, the rights of women to marry

foreign nationals and join them abroad-has time and againinyoked the proyisions of the Universal Declaration in supportof recommendations calling for the liberalization of nationallaws and practices.

Within their own respectiye spheres, the Economic andSocial Council and the Trusteeship Council have followed asimilar policy on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from the

principle of equal pay for equal work, the nationality ofmarried women and the prohibition of all forms of forcedlabour, to the free flow of information through all frontiersand the abolition of corporal punishment in trust territories.

The importance of this attitude adopted by organs of theUnited Nations cannot be exaggerated. Their tendency totreat the Universal Declaration as authoritative, regardless ofits lack of formally binding force, giyes a strong incentiyeto Governments to adopt a correspondingly positiye attitude.

Since 1948, new constitutions have been enacted in anumber of countries, notably in Indonesia, Costa Rico, Syria,EI Salyador and Haiti ; on all these enactments the Decla-ration has exerted an unmistakable influence, in some casesto the point where the wording of the Declaration was

reproduced verbatim.In other countries, including France, Western Germany and

Canada, the principles of the Declaration are clearlyreflected in certain new laws dealing with fair employment

practices, the status of displaced persons and other subjects.

A LL these examples point to the conclusion that, even duringthe first four years since its adoption, the UniversalDeclaration has proved its worth as a potent ferment whichhas a stimulating effect on the vitality of the body politicinto which it has been introduced. And yet, its beneficenteffect cannot be assessed solely in terms of achievementsin a positive direction.

We must not forget that, throughout the world, these pastfour years have been a period of tension, danger and fear,such as in the past almost invariably resulted in the severecurtailment of fundamental freedoms.

If, during the past four years, we have been spared anysuch distressing experience on a scale comparable with the

past, if, regardless of a mounting tension, we have been ableto maintain and in many instances to increase our standardsof political freedam and social justice, that is in no smallmeasure due to the impact of the Universal Declaration onthe minds of Governments and the governed.

A world-wide task for Unesco

HELPING NATIONS TO PROVIDE

EDUCATION FOR ALL

ONE half of mankind is still illite-rats. About the same proportionof children of school age are

without schooling. Opportunities forsecondary and vocational educationare still limited in most countries.

These are the hard facts of theworld's educational situation. To claimthat they are at the root of all theworld's ills would be an exaggeration.But what is true is that ignorance re-sults in poverty, and poverty goeshand-in-hand with disease.

To attack the inter-linked problemsof ignorance, poverty and sickness byhelping the people of underdevelopedcountries to improve their standardsof living is a task which Unesco hasundertaken in its pioneering work todevelop and extend Fundamental Edu-cation for illiterate adults and children.

But the continuous tide of childrenwho grow up to be illiterate adults,thus creating the need for Fundament-al Education, can only be checked bythe provision of a regular school edu-cation for all children in all countries.

It is this gross inequality in educa-tional provisions throughout theworld which inspired Article 26 of theUniversal Declaration of HumanRights."Everyone has the right toeducation. Education shall be free, atleast in the elementary stages. Ele-mentary education shall be compul-sory".

One of Unesco's first acts in its pro-gramme to promote free and compul-sory education was to assist the Inter-national Bureau of Education to carry

out an inquiry into this question in allparts of the world. At the same time,it made several national studies of itsown on compulsory education.

Three of these studies dealt withcountries where compulsory educationhas been applied for some time : Eng-land, France and Australia. Theother three had to do with countriesin various stages of applying compul-sory education : Ecuador, Iraq andThailand. In addition, general studieswere written on the problem of rais-ing the school leaving age, and onchild labour in relation to compulsoryeducation.

The immediately useful purpose ofthese studies and reports was to assistthe International Conference on PublicEducation, which chose free and com-pulsory education as its main topic ofdiscussion when it met in Geneva lastyear. Recommendations made by thisconference emphasized the importanceof long-term State planning ofcompulsory education schemes.

The Conference also recommendedthat the possibilities of obtaining in-ternational aid be explored. To helpimprove the attendance of poorchildren called for such social welfaremeasures as school meals, the pro-vision of clothing and family allow-ances.

It is not difficult to reach generalagreement on the advisability of tak-ing such measures as these. And, infact, those States who are in theadvance guard of compulsory edu-

cation need little or no help andadvice in this fields.

But this is not the case of the"'lessadvanced countries, which are still inthe majority, and which have notyet established effective compulsoryeducation systems. These States,while anxious to do so, are unable toapply such measures in the immediatefuture, because of lack of technicalknowledge or because of social or poli-tical obstacles, but above all becauseof the lack of financial and economicresources.

They therefore tend to think ofcompulsory education as a vague aimto be realized in the very distantfuture, and often take a kind of fatal-istic view of the problem.

One of Unescos roles is to convincethese States that, if the full applicationof free and compulsory education looksdistant, it can be brought nearer bya more active policy of extending pri-mary education and by better manage-ment of resources, and that compul-sory education schemes are bestformulated with other schemes for theeccnomic development of the country.

It can offer technical assistance forthe planning and execution of suchschemes and, in some respects, itscampaign must take the form of acrusade is which Member States andeducators are roused to a sense ofurgency, as well as to a realization ofthe feasibility of compulsory education.

No such crusade, however, can beeffective unless it is based on a sound*foundation of existing facts, andunless steps are taken to ensure ade-quate planning in this field. To ensurethis, Unesco makes use of four me-thods : the preparation of studies andpublications about problems of free andcompulsory education, the holding ofregional conferences, the sending outof missions or individual experts, andthe granting of fellowships and ofscholarships.

For example, Unesco has been pre-paring for the Conference on Compul-sory Education in South-East Asia andthe Pacific, which will be held inBombay next month. Thirteen Mem-ber States have been invited to it-Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, Cey-lon, India, Indonesia, Laos, New Zea-land, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand,Union of Burma and Vietnam. Onenon-Member State, Nepal, has beenasked to send an observer. MemberStates responsible for the administra-tion of territories in this region whohave also been invited are France, theNetherlands, the United Kingdom andthe United States.

One of the main questions to beexamined at this Conference will bethe preparation of compulsory educ-ation curricula.

It has been shown that"academic"curricula in primary schools have anadverse effect on school attendance inmany countries. Parents, especiallypoor parents in outlying districts, whoare in need of the labour of theirchildren, tend to think of most ofschool instruction as a luxury, havinglittle to do with their everyday pro-blems. They therefore withdraw theirchildren from school or do not sendthem at all.

The technical and material needs ofcountries in South-East Asia and thePacific will be examined as will thequestions of the status and trainingof teachers. Countries will be asked :"What programmes do you have, andhow can Unesco help you to achievethem ?"Emphasis will be laid on theneed for the drawing up of schemesof compulsory education even thoughthey may not be fully effective forsome time.

By such activities as these, Unescois giving international educationalassistance to those countries that re-quest it in order to turn the principleof education for all into a reality.

UNESCO

OURIER NOVEMBER 1952. Page t5

THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION

ONE of man's most cherished rights is to be able to hold opinionsand to express them. Yet this right which, in the words ofthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights, includes

"freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receiveand impart information and ideas through any media andregardless of frontiers"is far from generally enjoyed in the worldtoday.

In the present state of international affairs, political differencesare raising serious barriers to the realization of this right. Thereare, however, broad areas of human need and activity outside thedirectly political sphere in which much can be done to lessenimpediments to freedom of information.

It is here that Unesco has been active in trying to remove theobstacles which hinder the passage across frontiers of books,newspapers, press despatches and, in general, knowledge and ideas.One of Unesco's major initiatives was the Agreement on theImportation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials whichrecently came into force.

Another was the Universal Copyright Convention, signed bythe representatives of 35 nations in Geneva last September. This

agreement supplements international copyTig-ht law, broadeningand strengthening the scope of existing bilateral and multilateralinstruments already in effect.'

Unesco has also been striving to relieve the crisis arising fromthe shortage and maldistribution of newsprint and of paper forbooks and publications. One of its proposals, calling for thelowering of postal rates on newspapers and publications, wasadopted by the Universal Postal Convention last May.

In another field, Unesco has been working to promote the freemovement of persons engaged in educational, scientific and culturalactivities. It has called on governments to assist this movementby reducing transport costs, passport and frontier formalities andhas urged the granting of fellowships and travel grants, particularlyfor students, teachers and scientists.

To illustrate some of the obstacles which are still raised againstthe right to information we present on this page two pictographs.The first shows the unequal distribution throughout the world ofradio sets, cinema seats and daily newspapers ; the other indicatesthe customs duties which hinder the free flow of informationacross frontiers.

Press, Film, Radio

Pictograph shows the number of copies of daily newspapers, thenumber of radio sets and the number of cinema seats that areavailable to every 100 people in the different parts of the world.

Customs duties

Black bands symbolize frontiers. Thesmaller the openings in them, the moredifficult it is (because of duties) to passbooks, radio set and newsreels into the44 countries represented in the pictograph.The figure immediately underneath theopenings indicates the number of coun-tries in each group. The word"free"ap-pears over countries which allow in booksor newsreels without demanding duty.

During the last few years the peoples ofSouth-East Asia have been courageouslyand successfully tackling tremendous eco-

nomic and social problems which, in manycases, their new-found political independencehas thrust upon them. It is true that faminesand epidemics have not been banished fromthis part of the world, nor has there been asweeping decrease in illiterary. But everyday some progress is made towards theachievement of better standards of living-that is to say, towards a realization of theprinciples proclaimed in the Universal Decla-ration of Human Rights. Infant mortality,rates, once so high, are now decreasingsteadily, thanks to measures taken by govern-ments aided by the Specialized Agencies ofthe United Nations. It is to be hoped thatone day this young Hindu can truly say :"I was born in the century of Human Rights."