Escola Secundária c/ 3º CEB da Sé – Guarda

English

Andreia Oliveira Nº1Deidre Meursing Nº8

Tiago Vilão Nº1912th B

Teacher: Fátima Amaral

School Year 2010/2011

INDEX

Introduction....................................................................................1

Human Rights.................................................................................2

Back to Basics................................................................................4

Nelson Mandela………………………………………………….6

Conclusion…………………………………………………….....8

Biography………………………………………………………..9

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

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,

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 18th 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!

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.

Biography

Students’ Book

Internet:

http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/First_Steps/index_eng.html