History:
Human rights
1 What are human rights?
How do you say these words in Slovenian?
Complete the definitions with a word from the list.
2 The history of human rights
Look at the questions, then read about the history of human rights and find the answers.
If we look back in history, the first recorded example of human rights appears in 539 BC. Cyrus the Great, the first king of ancient Persia, freed all the slaves of Babylon; he declared that everyone had the right to choose their own religion, and that all races were equal. People were amazed, but the idea of human rights spread quickly to India, Greece and, later, Rome.
In 1215 a document called the Magna Carta (also called the Magna Carta Libertatum – the Great Charter of Liberties) gave people in England new rights, and limited the power of the king. For the first time no one, not even the king, was above the law.
In 1789 the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was written, stating that all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law, and this became part of the French Constitution.
The US Bill of Rights in 1791 protected the rights of all citizens, including their right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to
After the Second World War, the United Nations was formed. The first conference took place in San Francisco in 1945. The countries in the UN wanted to try to prevent more wars, and to provide a place where its members could talk about and solve their differences. Today the UN includes UNICEF, UNESCO, IMF, and WHO.
On December 10th 1948, the UN passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, listing 30 basic rights which they hoped would be ‘a common standard … for all peoples and nations’. Most countries are members of the UN, but abuses of human rights are still common in many parts of the world.
The European Court of Human Rights began in 1959. It meets in Strasbourg and hears human rights cases from the whole of Europe. Individuals can bring cases against their government if they think their human rights have been abused. The court also passes new laws, for example, it has made corporal punishment in schools in Europe illegal.
The American, Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), was the chair of the UN Commission of Human Rights. She was the wife of the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945).
What are the full names of the following organisations: UNICEF, UNESCO, IMF and WHO?
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a global pressure group which campaigns against abuses of human rights. It was started in 1961 by an Englishman, Peter Benenson. Amnesty International puts pressure on governments and other powerful groups to respect international law on human rights.
Today Amnesty International is an international movement of more than 7 million people across 150 countries. Its members, among whom are many young people and youth groups, campaign for the abolition of the death penalty, the abolition of torture, for freedom of speech and for the release of people who are in prison because of their beliefs, colour, sex, ethnic origin, language or religion.
You can find out more at www.amnesty.org.
‘It is better to light
a candle than curse
the darkness.’
What do you think the above quotation means? Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons for your answers.
3 Civil rights in the USA
Read the text about civil rights in the USA.
1 Make a ‘glossary’ of words which describe the civil rights movement. Copy the words from the text and write their meanings.
2 Find at least six key events in the history of the civil rights movement.
3 Write three questions about the text, then ask and answer your questions.
Slavery was finally abolished in the USA in 1865, but in the south there was still a large number of racist whites who were against the idea of civil rights for black Americans. In many southern states, local state laws prevented black Americans from voting and from going to multiracial schools, and they had to sit in separate areas in public places and on buses.
In Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, a black woman, Rosa Parks, refused to give her seat on the bus to a white man. She was arrested for breaking the city’s segregation law. Black – and many white – Americans were outraged. Led by Martin Luther King, they refused to use the buses in Alabama. King believed in non-violent protest and he persuaded people to demonstrate peacefully. Finally, the Supreme Court decided that segregation on the buses was illegal.
Rosa Parks (1913– 2005). Her birthday, 4th February, and the day she was arrested, 1st December, have both become Rosa Parks Day, commemorated in California and Ohio.
In 1957 the governor of Arkansas refused to let nine black children go to the all-white Little Rock Central High School. President Eisenhower sent 1,000 paratroopers to protect the children as they went to school.
The civil rights movement grew and was supported by many white politicians, including President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. But racial tension was high in the south, where organisations like the Ku Klux Klan violently opposed the civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King and his followers went to prison many times for their beliefs, but their protests continued and grew. In 1963, the nation was shocked by police brutality against civil rights protestors in Birmingham, Alabama.
On 28th August 1963, King led the March on Washington to demand civil rights reform. More than 200,000 marchers heard his famous speech: ‘I have a dream …’, where he quoted the words from the US Constitution – that ‘all men are created equal’. In 1964 President Kennedy’s Civil Rights Act was finally passed. It banned discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex or national origin, and segregation in schools, offices and public places. In 1965 the Voting Rights Act protected the voting rights of blacks.
King was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. But not all blacks agreed with King’s belief in non-violent protest and there were race riots in many US cities. In April 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated when he was visiting Memphis, Tennessee. There were protest riots in more than 125 cities across the US.
4 Women’s voting rights
Look at the information box and then discuss these questions with the class.
The Isle of Man, in the UK, was the first place to give women the vote in 1880. Certain states of the USA gave women the vote at earlier dates, but it was not given nationally until 1920.
Find out more about the fight for votes for women in the UK. If you can, watch the film ‘Suffragette’ (2015, starring Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep) and talk about it with the class.