Universal+Declaration+of+Human+Rights

Universal Declaration of Human RIghts Roberts Page
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**//The Holocaust and Human Rights//**
When Allied troops marched into German territory in 1945, they came upon the Nazi death camps and saw the horrors of the Holocaust first-hand. Rene Levesque was a Canadian news correspondent during World War II. He later became the premier of Quebec. Levesque accompanied the American army when they liberated a concentration camp minutes after the Nazi guards had fled. He raised questions about responsibility for the Holocaust that are still debated today.

Deloused and covered from head to foot in DDT, we retraced our steps to our billet [room] in the harmonious-sounding village of Rosenheim. On the way, passing through the quiet suburb with its kindly old people, we asked each other with our eyes, "Did they know? How could they not have? What was behind those good, old, pious-looking faces?" But what was the use questioning? We were beginning to wish we hadn't seen anything ourselves. Rene Lévesque, //Memoirs// (Montreal: Amerique, 1986)

The Holocaust motivated the United Nations to protect human dignity and human rights immediately. In 1946 Montreal law expert John Peters Humphrey established the United Nations Human Rights Division. He served as the first director of the Division and worked with a small international group to prepare a statement of human rights that would be recognized by all member nations.

**DDT**: a very powerful, odourless insecticide now banned in many countries. During World War II, the U.S. army used it to control body lice.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted Humphrey's final copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its 30 articles have been used as basic principles of law in many countries, including Canada. It was the foundation for Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights and the 1962 Ontario Human Rights Code.

**Excerpts from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights**
**Article 1:** All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

**Article 2:** Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status...

**Article 3:** Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

**Article 4:** No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

**Article 5:** No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

**Article 6:** Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

**Article 7:** All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination...

without distinction: without any difference

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; font: normal normal normal 110%/normal 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.3px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">servitude: being forced to work for someone against your will

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; font: normal normal normal 110%/normal 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.3px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">discrimination: treated unfairly based on race, gender, and so on

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; font: normal normal normal 110%/normal 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.3px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">incitement: encouraging someone to take an action

<span style="font: 150% 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.3px; margin: 0px;">**Tasks**
<span style="font: 150% 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.3px; margin: 0px;">1. Think about Rene Levesque's comments about the concentration camp:

<span style="font: 150% 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.3px; margin: 0px;">a) Should people who knew about the death camps but didn't do anything about it share responsibility for the Holocaust?

<span style="font: 150% 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.3px; margin: 0px;">b) What do you think Lévesque meant by his last sentence: "We were beginning to wish we hadn't seen anything ourselves"?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: normal;">2. Identify which articles of the Human Rights Declaration were clearly violated by the Nazis.