Introduction

• Your parents’ tenants, a retired couple, are actively involved with the community. They have lived at the same address for years. In the summer, the husband wears short sleeved shirts, and you see numbers tattooed on his wrist. You had heard that he was in a concentration camp during World War II where his parents and sisters died.

• Imagine that your great-grandparents came from Japan to settle in British Columbia in the early 1920’s. During World War II, Japan attacks Pearl Harbour. The Canadian government acts quickly and moves all Japanese who are living in B.C. 100 miles away from the coast, into internment camps. The government closes down all their businesses, and confiscates their homes and property.

• Family friends who immigrated to Canada from Ireland in the 1960s tell you that they had a hard time finding work in the city because "back then, Catholics weren’t hired."

• What if your cousin uses a wheelchair? When she comes to visit, you decide to see a movie together, but when you get to the theatre, there are three steps leading up to the door. With the help of ushers, she manages to get inside, but the only spot in the theatre where she can sit is right up front.

• At your summer job, the people you work with imitate a South Asian accent or a West Indian accent when they tell jokes, and make comments about these groups being involved in organized crime. Everybody laughs, but it makes you feel uncomfortable. You don’t say anything.

• You call to view an apartment that you’d like to rent. The manager asks you several questions over the phone before making an appointment. You arrive, and fill out an application in the office. But as soon as the manager meets you, he says "Sorry, it was just taken." You have a friend call to check later that afternoon, and she is told that the apartment is still available. You think its because the manager doesn’t want people who aren’t white living in his building.

• You are the proud aunt of your sister’s new baby. Under the law, she’s entitled to go back to her position when she returns from maternity leave. On her first day back, her supervisor says that the office "restructured" while she was off and her position was eliminated. When she spoke with her colleagues, she found out that only her position was "gone".

• How would you feel if you were taken away from your parents when you were 8 years old, and placed in a residential school where you weren’t allowed to speak your own language or contact your parents, and where your teachers tried to erase your cultural identity?

• Today, universities and colleges cannot restricte enrollment based on race, colour, age, marital status etc. Professions such as the law, pharmacy and accountancy, are also open to everyone regardless of your race, ancestry, ethnic origin, etc. It wasn’t always that way. Not that long ago, many people were barred from attending university and practicing law for reasons such as colour and ethnic origin.

These are all real-life examples from the past and the present. These scenarios are about differential treatment. Which of these situations do not constitute a contravention of human rights?

The Global Gathering Place looks at the international, national, and local levels to explore the concept of "human rights" — that is, the rights that belong to all people.

Through this module on Human Rights, you will explore how idea of "human rights" evolved. You’ll understand that each one of the examples on the previous page is a violation of human rights today. However, if you turned back the clock just a few generations back there were no laws to protect people’s rights. After journeying through this module and examining human rights thoughts, laws and legislation, and thinking about the social values that shape legal decisions, you’ll appreciate the significant role that human rights plays in building the foundation of our global community. The idea of freedom threads through every civilization. It is universal. Like food and water, human rights and fundamental freedoms is a commonality that is shared by every person on the planet.

(Use images but don’t link out from this text — encourage them to read straight through to the end of the section called What Are Human Rights?)

 Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

The opening sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that the respect of human rights and human dignity "is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world."

Human rights are "those rights which are inherent in our nature". Without human rights we cannot live as human beings. Human rights are based on humankind’s increasing demand for a life whereby the inherent dignity and worth of each human being is respected and protected. These rights allow us to develop to our fullest potential as world citizens.

The term "human rights" encompasses an evolving group of concepts that are the life-blood of society, permeating virtually aspect of our lives. These rights are not framed simply in terms of laws and legislation. "Human rights" stem from our cultural, economic, legal, political, social and religious background, and are therefore inherent in every society in the world.

When human rights and fundamental freedoms are denied, this vacuum creates conditions that give rise to social and political unrest. At the international level, we have seen violence and conflict erupt between societies and nations when human rights and fundamental freedoms are abused and taken away. (Link to: Human Rights, Peace and Development)

It has only been during the eve of this millenium that nation states began to take formal measures to promote and protect human rights. Through a series of events, many with horribly tragic consequences, the world community has now come to realize that human rights and fundamental freedoms transcend the laws of sovereign states.

Many thought that "human rights and fundamental freedoms" are shaped by the national identity. According to this theory, each group of people will have its own definition of what "human rights and fundamental freedoms" mean, and its meaning is based on the specificity of history, culture, beliefs and values.

The events just prior to and during the Second World War weighed heavily on the conscience of several nations. The experience of the war with the systematic elimination of millions of civilians, resulted in widespread conviction that effective international protection of human rights was an essential condition of international peace and progress.

In 1945, after the Second World War, the Charter of the United Nations was drafted and ratified, and it reaffirmed for all member countries, an international faith in human rights. The Charter does not define human rights, and those drafted it left this responsibility to the Organization itself. For the purpose of setting up a structure by which the United Nations would carry out the principles set out in the Charter, the International Bill of Rights was drawn up, which consists of: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Economic, social and Cultural Rights 91966), the International on Civil and Political Rights and its Optional Protocol (1966).

The concept of human rights and fundamental freedoms had been discussed for hundreds of years before the United Nations was established. It is rooted in all great world events. Throughout history human rights and fundamental freedoms have sustained the struggle for freedom and equality. As we have seen, the formal Organization, the United Nations, and international instruments (Declarations and Covenants), are relatively recent developments.

On December 10, 1998, the world community celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. It was a time for celebration — in the past five decades the world has seen incredible events unfold, changing forever the lives of millions of people.

Read about The United Nations

Read about The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Read about Human Rights Ideas and Concepts

Read about Human Rights Thinkers and Advocates

Read about Human Rights, Peace and Development

Go Ahead to Human Rights and Canada: Building the Foundation