The Origin of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

•It was published by the United Nations in 1948.•It lists the rights that all people have.•Most governments have agreed to respect and protect these rights…

The Origin of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Beginning – why it was written

Applies to everyone, regardless of

ethnicity, nation, age, gender etc

An OFFICIAL statement Yesterday’s definition….

Five things you will learn today….

1. The definitions of PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION, PERSECUTION AND GENOCIDE.

2. That there is a set of Human Rights that most governments agree should be guaranteed.

3. That the organisation which protects and promotes them is based in New York.

4. That one of the darkest episodes in history made governments realise that Human Rights needed to be agreed upon and protected.

5. What those rights are!

Which event in 20th Century history shocked the world so much that it made the leaders’ of nations focus on Human Rights?

Clues….

1. The event happened in Europe…

2. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turned 60 in 2008…

3. The event involved the deaths of over 6 million people.

The event was…..

The treatment of minorities – especially Jews – in Nazi Germany.

In 1924 Adolf Hitler wrote a book called Mein Kampf (My Struggle)

• The book explained Hitler’s view of the world.

• At the time Germany was experiencing a lot of economic and social problems.

• Hitler blamed a lot of those problems on the Jewish people.

• Anti-semitism (hatred of the Jewish people) was a common PREJUDICE at the time.

• The book explained Hitler’s view of the world.

• At the time Germany was experiencing a lot of economic and social problems.

• Hitler blamed a lot of those problems on the Jewish people.

• Anti-semitism (hatred of the Jewish people) was a common PREJUDICE at the time.

What do you think these words mean?

Word

PREJUDICE

DISCRIMINATION

PERSECUTION

GENOCIDE

What do you think the word PREJUDICE means?

Definition: Negative and irrational beliefs about a group of people.

Prejudice = “To pre-judge”

Example: Thinking someone will be a bad worker simply because of their ethnicity or religion.

Prejudice against Jews in Nazi Germany

• Many Germans felt the Jews could not be trusted in business dealings and that they were greedy and dishonest.

• This was a prejudice that went back centuries and many Europeans also believed it.

• This was irrational because there was no evidence to support it – it was just a stereotype.

Turning Prejudice into action - DISCRIMINATION

• People can be prejudiced because that was how they were brought up.

• Some negative stereotypes are common but few people base their day-to-day actions upon them.

• A prejudice is a belief about a group. DISCRIMINATION is a little different. What do you think the word ‘DISCRIMINATION’ means?

What is the difference between PREJUDICE and DISCRIMINATION?

Definition: Treating a group of people unfairly because of a prejudice against them.

Prejudice = Pre-Judge

DiscriminaTION = AcTION

Examples:

1.Refusing to employ someone because of their ethnicity.

2.Firing someone when you find out they belong to a particular religious group.

Discrimination in Nazi Germany• Many Germans had Jewish friends.• Some Germans who shared Hitler’s prejudice

still treated Jews fairly.• However, some individual Germans would

not employ Jews, allow their children to date them, shop in Jewish shops or rent property to them.

• These are ACTS of Discrimination

A common prejudice…

Some would have even discriminated against them…

In countries like England, France, the United States and even New Zealand there were many people in the 1930s who were prejudiced against Jews.

Woodrow Wilson President of the USA (1913-1921)Prejudiced against Jews

and African Americans

This picture was taken in Nazi Germany. What evidence can you see that Discrimination in Nazi Germany went beyond individuals being unfair to Jews?

Discrimination PERSECUTION

Jewish Symbol – the Star of David

Sign telling

Germans not to shop there.

Locked gate

Soldier in uniform

enforcing closure

In Nazi Germany it was government policy to discriminate against the Jewish people.

Laws were passed that targeted the Jewish population.

Definition

Persecution: Organised discrimination against a group of people.

Example: A law making it illegal to employee people of a particular ethnicity or religion.

The shocking event that made the world take Human Rights seriously…

• Nazi Germany not only persecuted the Jewish people. Gypsies, the mentally ill and homosexuals were also targeted.

• In 1941 the Nazis decided that the Jewish ‘problem’ (their existence) needed to be ended once and for all.

• The Nazis set up large camps in the occupied country of Poland.

• They shipped millions of Jews from Europe to these camps….

The Final Solution to the Jewish ‘Problem’Hitler and other leading Nazis decided to exterminate

every Jew in Europe.

This was a policy of GENOCIDE.

Definition

GENOCIDE: AN ATTEMPT TO EXTERMINATE AN ENTIRE RACE OF PEOPLE

Auschwitz

The extermination camp outside the Polish town of Auschwitz was one of the largest. Over 1.5 million Jews were exterminated in this camp alone.

“Work will set you free”

The Liberation of the Extermination Camps

In 1944 and 1945 the Nazis started to lose territory to the Allies.

Russian, British and American soldiers captured the camps and liberated the surviving Jews.

They were greeted as heroes and saviours.

The awful truth confronting the liberating forces

American soldiers at the camp in Dachau

The awful truth confronting the liberating forces

The clothes of Jews were confiscated before they

were executed. They were sold or given to Germans.

The awful truth confronting the liberating forces

The awful truth confronting the liberating forces

These horrors shocked the world….

Soldiers and journalists reported what they had seen in the camps.

Newspapers around the world exposed the horrors of the camps.

Survivors returned home to their communities and told the world about life and death inside the camps…

Jewish survivors wearing jackets confiscated from

Nazi guards.

The creation of the United Nations• World War Two had demonstrated that the existing ways of

preventing war were not effective.

• The war had also created a massive refugee problem and destroyed many cities in Europe and Asia.

• The leaders of the world’s most powerful nations realised that a new organisation was needed to help the world recover and prevent future wars.

• The organisation was the United Nations.

The United Nations was created in 1945

The first meeting was in San Francisco

The United Nations Headquarters is based in New York.

The land it is on is international, not American.

Statue emphasising the goal of world peace.

Which rights should the United Nations protect?

During World War Two Britain, the United States and Russia had agreed that FOUR freedoms would be guaranteed in Europe once the Nazis were defeated :

1. Freedom of expression (“To say what you want”

2. Freedom of assembly (“To associate with who you want”)

3. Freedom from fear (“So no government will persecute you”)

4. Freedom from want (“So no person will be homeless or hungry”)

The Universal Declaration of Human RightsGovernments could not easily agree on the

rights they would give their citizens.

Democracies like the United States wanted to emphasise political freedoms such as the right to vote.

Dictatorships like the Soviet Union wanted to emphasise the right to food and shelter.

After three years of arguments and discussions the final text was agreed to.

In 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was finally published. It is still the most important agreement on Human Rights.

REVIEWPrejudice, Discrimination or Persecution?• Thinking someone is less intelligent because of the

country they were born in…• A law which stops teachers from belonging to a particular

religious group.• Not allowing your daughter to marry someone because of

their race.• Firing a worker in your shop because you don’t like their

religion.• Believing that all members of a religion believe the same

thing.• A law which allows you to own people of a different race.