1. Escola Secundária c/ 3º CEB da Sé – Guarda
English
Andreia Oliveira Nº1
Deidre Meursing Nº8
Tiago Vilão Nº19
12th B
Teacher: Fátima Amaral
School Year 2010/2011
3. INtroDuctIoN
Since the beginning of the second term, we have been discussing the importance
of the Human Rights. It is known that they have been evolving along with the human
needs, affecting the daily life of people in so many different situations, although it does
not interfere with their lives by the same way. There are still many people who are not
even aware of the rights they could claim, just because they are.
We can compare the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to
the landing on the moon, a small step for a human being, but a giant step for Humanity.
As we consider this document a very important piece, we will mention its creation and
what it provoked during the past decades. We will also be focusing on the more
fundamental rights like women, children and labour’s rights, which, unfortunately, are
not that well respected in so many places throughout the world.
To enrich our research we will choose an icon for the Human Rights. As we
think of Nelson Mandela as one of the most propelling people for the fight against the
violation of the Human Rights, we will speak about his life and his struggle against
apartheid in South-Africa.
4. HumaN rIgHts
The Human Rights didn’t emerge out of nowhere. The fundamentals can be
found through history, in religious beliefs and cultures all over the world. The first
declaration, comparable to the UDHR, is the Cyrus Cylinder, written in 539 B.C., by
Cyrus the Great, king of Persia.
After the Second World War the world needed to re-establish, and there were so
many significant differences between people and their conditions, that something had to
be done. By these days the allies agreed about the freedom of speech, freedom of
assembly, freedom from fear and freedom from want. As soon as the cruelties done by
Germany became clear the world community realised that the United Nations Charter
was not sufficient. Therefore a new document, which specified all individual rights, had
to be formed to the acceptance of all nations.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly on the 10th December in 1948 at the Palais de
Chaillot, Paris. At first it consisted of 30 inherent articles to international treaties,
regional human rights associations, national constitutions and laws. In 1966 two
detailed Covenants were adopted by the General Assembly, they completed the
International Bill of Human Rights. In 1976 these Covenants took on the force of
international law, because it had been ratified by a large number of individual nations.
Most of the work to form to form the UDHR was done by John Peters
Humphrey who was called upon by the United Nations Secretary-General. Humphrey
was working as Director of the Division of Human Rights by the United Nations
Secretariat. Initiating with an International Bill of Rights, the Commission on Human
Rights, an instrument of the United Nations, was constituted to undertake the work. The
Commission was formed by members such as Australia, Belgium, Byelorussian Soviet
Socialist Republic, Chile, China, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Lebanon, Panama,
Philippines, United Kingdom, United States of America, Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, Uruguay and Yugoslavia. The Commission included well-known members
like Eleanor Roosevelt(USA), Chairman, Jacques Maritain and René Cassin(FR),
Charles Malik(Lebanon) and P.C. Chang(China).
5. Finally on 10 December 1948 the UDHR was accepted and adopted by the
General Assembly by a vote of 48 in favour, 0 against and 8 abstentions(all Soviet Bloc
states, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
The following countries voted in favour of the Declaration:
Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Chile,
China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, India, Iran,
Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Thailand, Sweden,
Syria, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Despite the central role played by Canadian John Humphrey, the Canadian
Government at first abstained from voting on the Declaration's draft, but later voted in
favour of the final draft in the General Assembly.
6. Back to BasIcs
The UDHR issues a large number of rights with uncountable backgrounds,
therefore we will be discussing the more basic ones.
Starting with the rights of children and youngsters, we have to realise that the
way we live here, in Western-Europe, is not at all, compared to the rest of the world, the
average. Many children, in for example Third World countries, do not have access to
clean water, hygiene or time to themselves, not to mention access to education. Many
children have to go and work to earn money to supply their families and keep them
alive. This drowses against all children’s rights, as they have the right to a standard of
living adequate for a child’s intellectual, physical, moral and spiritual development,
including adequate food, shelter and clothing. These rights are just basic human rights,
such as the right to freedom of discrimination based on gender, race, colour, language,
religion, nationality, ethnicity, or any other status, or on the status of the child’s parents.
And this last part, the right to freedom of discrimination based on the status of the
child’s parent, is already more specific. The Human Rights belong to all human beings,
therefore including children and young people. But young people also enjoy certain
human rights specifically linked to their status as under-aged and their need for special
care and protection. A good example is the right of the child to live in a family
environment. States should provide families with assistance and support if necessary for
meeting the fundamental needs of the child. Another very well known children’s right,
is the right to education – to free and compulsory education, to readily available forms
of secondary and higher education, and to the freedom from all types of discrimination
at all levels of education.
Other, not less important, rights are the women’s rights. Although women are, in
First World countries, accepted as equal to men within public treaties and legal
procedures, they are still understated by large numbers in other parts of the world.
Millions of women live in conditions of direct deprivation of, or attack against, their
fundamental rights with as single motive their being women. Abuses against them are
relentless, systematic and tolerated, if not silenced. Many bodies, associations and
foundations have been set up for the protection of women’s rights. They provide shelter
for those who have fled their homes, register cases of rape, domestic violence,
trafficking of women, female genital mutilation, and so on, and they are committed to
voicing a worldwide call for justice and equality for women. Other concerns of theirs
7. are reproductive rights and equal access to economic opportunity and political
participation. As the Human Rights are meant for all human beings, they include
children and women. Children’s and women’s right over lapse each other in when a girl
or young woman is denied higher education, a situation much more common than denial
of education to children in general. Even in our western society girls are brought up
with the idea that secondary or higher education is not part of their future. Their
concerns should be finding a good husband, having a lot of children and a neat house.
Labour rights do not appear in the news every now and then, but they form the
roots of a healthy working situation. Labour rights are used with negotiation of workers’
wages, benefits and safe conditions. They are based on, for example, the working terms
and the relation between workers and their employees. The most basic right within
labour rights, is the right to unionise. Unions make use of collective negotiating and
industrial actions to realise the raise of the wages or other concerns. “When Adam
delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?” is a famous quote by John Ball,
one of the leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt, a foundation which defended the labour
rights in the Middle Age. For example, they fought against the enclosure movement,
which took traditionally communal land and made them private. A new law was
accepted in 1833 which stated that children under the age of 9 could not work, between
9 and 13 only 8 hours a day and between 14 and 18 not more than 12 hours a day. In
1919 the International Labour Organisation was formed, which later became part of the
United Nations, causing the addition of two articles to the UDHR. These read that
everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to fair and reasonable
conditions of work and to protect against unemployment. The right to equal pay for
equal work, without any discrimination. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure,
including reasonable limitation of work hours and periodic holidays with pay. All
human rights are linked to each other. As children have the right to education, this
overlaps with the right against discrimination of girls who are not allowed to go to
school just because of their sex. Labour rights have, for example, put an end to child
labour, overlapping the children’s rights.
8. NElsoN rolIHlaHla maNDEla
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, also known as uTata Madiba in South Africa, was
born on the 18th July 1918, in Mvezo, a small village in the district of Umtata. Mandela's
father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, served as chief of the town of Mvezo. Gadla had
four wives, with whom he fathered thirteen children. Nelson Mandela was born to his
third wife, Nosekeni Fanny. Rolihlahla became the first member of his family to attend
a school, where his teacher gave him the English name Nelson. He completed his Junior
Certificate in two years instead of the usual three and he began to study for a Bachelor
of Arts at the Fort Hare University. Mandela worked as a guard at a mine, as an articled
clerk at a Johannesburg law firm and meanwhile he completed his B.A. degree at the
University of South Africa via correspondence. He was mainly an anti-apartheid activist
and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed department of the African National
Congress (ANC). He coordinated sabotage campaigns against military and government
targets, making plans for a possible civil war if the sabotage to end apartheid failed,
even though he was against violence. In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage
and other charges and he was sentenced to 27 years life in prison, on Robben Island,
where he studied for a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London External
Programme. While in jail, his reputation grew and he became widely known as the most
significant black leader in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was finally released on the
11th Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990. On that day, he made a
speech to the nation. He declared his commitment to peace and reconciliation, but made
clear that the ANC's armed struggle was not yet over.
Before his election, the first fully democratic multi-racial elections, Mandela led
his party in negotiations that improved multi-racial democracy in 1994, year of his
election. As President, from May 1994 until June 1999, Mandela presided over the
transition from minority rule and apartheid, winning international respect for his
encouragement for national and international reconciliation. Mandela encouraged black
South Africans to get behind the previously hated Springboks (the South African
national rugby team) as South Africa hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup (Story of the
film Invictus, recently made.) After the Springboks won an epic final over New
Zealand, Mandela presented the trophy to the captain, Francois Pienaar, an Afrikaner,
9. wearing a Springbok shirt with Pienaar's own number 6 on the back. This was widely
seen as a major step in the reconciliation of white and black South Africans.
After his retirement as President, Mandela became an advocate for a variety of
social and human rights organizations, mainly for SOS Children's Villages, the world's
largest organization dedicated to raising orphaned and abandoned children.
Mandela has received more than 250 South African and international awards
over four decades, but the most significant was the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Many
artists have dedicated songs to Mandela and there are many published biographies about
his life. Nelson Mandela’s work was so important that the 18 th July was adopted as his
day, by the United Nations. In order to honor him, individuals, communities and
organizations are asked to donate 67 minutes to do something for others,
commemorating the 67 years that Nelson Mandela gave to the struggle for social
justice.
During Mandela’s lifetime he has dedicated himself to the struggle of African
people, fighting against white domination and also against black domination. He has
loved the idea of a democratic and free society in which everyone can live peacefully
and equally. That is what he still wants to achieve and like he said before ‘it is an ideal
for which I am prepared to die’. That is the reason why Nelson Mandela differs from so
many other people who dreamt about different conditions and rights. He refused to limit
his action to dreams and hopes, he acted! Mandela knew that he was able to make the
difference, and he did it!
10. coNclusIoN
As we were able to see with this work realization, the theme Human Rights is a very
complex one. Nowadays, in developing countries, like Portugal, people are used to have
their basic rights for granted, they do not even think about their practical impact. People
just know they exist and that no one can violate them, just because they are human
beings. In our opinion, one of the best examples of this fact is the women’s rights
situation. Today, every woman born in a developed country is able to vote, to wear
whatever she wants, to express herself, to get married freely as well as to get divorced,
to go to school, to have a career…Although it was not always like that! The world
needed someone like Florence Thomas, wanting to change, to step forward,. What we
frequently forget is that though our situation is different, there are still many other
women all over the world whose education is completely interdict, who are not allowed
to choose their husband and who are sold like simple sexual objects.
Human Rights are no longer a matter of black and white people’s rights. As our
economic, social and cultural level is increasing, also our rights and needs are changing,
but we cannot forget about people who had the misfortune of being born in a country
where the right to have a retirement is similar to our chance to go to the moon, a mirage.
The world needs more Nelson Mandelas, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther Kings, in
short, people aiming for a greater awareness of the abuse of the human rights. Going to
school, playing with our friends, making choices of our own, etc., all these are very
normal actions for the three of us. Still, there are many different realities among people
our age throughout the world. What are we waiting for? Let us make the difference.
11. BIograpHy
• Students’ Book
• Internet:
http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/First_Steps/index_eng.html
