Human rights are supposed to be “universal”. That is, they are supposed to be the same for all people in all places by virtue of the fact that they are human. As globalization has spread in the twentieth and twenty-first century, the concept of human rights has spread along with it. In theory, that’s a good thing. But like globalization, the practice of protecting human rights has often been more “lumpy” than universal.

In addressing the universal nature of human rights, this article will help you address the global similarities and differences between people and evaluate whether globalization—or human rights—can ever be universally beneficial.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and according to this article, why was it written?
2. What were some ways that oppressed people used the Universal Declaration of Human Rights immediately after it was signed?
3. According to the author, what is the fundamental problem facing people who want to make human rights universal?
4. What do cultural relativists argue?
5. According to this article, are human rights an invention of Western imperialists?
6. What are some ways that globalization has helped spread human rights? What are some ways that it has endangered human rights?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. Like most of the articles you’ll read in this unit, this one doesn’t give you many definitive answers. So, you’ll just have to decide: Do you think that the concept of human rights is enough to protect people in the age of globalization?

In this final activity in the comparison progression, you’ll compare rights documents from around the world. These documents all include references to a source of government or power, individual rights, accountability of leaders or government, and information about the structure of governments. Comparing these documents will get you to think about what makes national governments and their citizens similar on a global scale. However, it can also show you where people differ, and how different cultures may place value on certain things that other nations do not.

Contextualization
Analyzing the context in which these documents were created tells us a lot about why certain nations adopted these constitutional rights at specific times in history.

In this activity, you’ll read a collection of human rights documents from a variety of different nation-states, compare them, and then write an essay in response to a comparison prompt.

First, your teacher will break up the class into small groups and assign two articles to each group. Your teacher will either hand out or have you download the Comparison – Rights Documents worksheet along with the Comparison – Rights Documents excerpts. Read your assigned documents on your own and then answer the questions for your articles in Part 1: Identifying and Describing of the Comparison Tool (included in the worksheet). Discuss your answers to these questions with your group members and then work together to complete the similarities and differences column.

Once all groups have completed Part 1 of the tool for their assigned documents, each group will share their similarities and differences by writing them on the chart your teacher creates on the board. Take a few minutes to read what the other groups found and look for similarities and differences across all the documents.

Next, use these similarities and differences to write to thesis statements in response to the prompts:

• What is the most significant similarity between these rights documents?
• What is the most significant difference between these rights documents?

Remember to use the acronym ADE (amount, depth, and endurance) to help determine historical significance. Consider if all people were affected by these similarities and differences (amount); if people were deeply affected by these similarities and differences (depth); or if these similarities and differences were long lasting (endurance).

Finally, use your thesis statements to write a comparison essay in response to the prompt To what extent are these rights documents similar and why? The essay should be five- to six-paragraphs long, and you should use evidence from the rights documents and the Comparison Tool to support your thesis statement. To ensure you meet your writing goals, review the WHP Writing Rubric before turning in your paper to your teacher.

Since the end of World War II and the establishment of the United Nations, genocides have continued to occur around the world. Historian Bennett Sherry asks why, and arrives at some unsettling conclusions including international indifference. To explain this failure, Sherry points to United Nations priorities, including a reluctance to violate national sovereignty (even in cases of obvious human rights violations), as well as the paralyzing veto power wielded by each of the five United Nations Security Council’s permanent members.

In this article, Bennett Sherry catalogs some of the post-World War II instances of genocide and asks how they have persisted in spite of international bodies designed to prevent such violence. This article should help you consider the most destructive aspects of the communities and networks frames. Though global communication networks have increased international awareness, genocides continue to occur. This article will help you respond Unit 9’s first big-problem question of why genocides continue in an era of expanding human rights and rights of citizenship.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. The United Nations passed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment for the Crime of Genocide in 1948. When was it first enforced and in what context?
2. How did the Cambodian genocide relate to the role of the American military in the Vietnam War?
3. How did the United States and China end up favoring the Khmer Rouge?
4. How do the United Nations Security Council’s permanent members prevent decisive action to stop or mitigate genocides?
5. Bennett notes several reasons for the international community’s failure to prevent or mitigate genocide, including the UN Security Council’s veto structure, international indifference, and a reluctance to fund aid efforts. But what commonly cited excuse for inaction does Bennett flatly reject and why?
6. Bennett concludes with quotes from former US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, who asserts that ongoing genocide is proof that the postwar system “is working.” What does she mean and how does Bennett demonstrate this?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. Bennett defines genocide very simply as “organized murder.” Do you think this is sufficient? What are the strengths of such a simple definition? How might this definition fail to consider the complexity of genocide in history? How would you support this simple approach to characterizing genocide, and how might you challenge this approach? How would you extend this definition?
2. Do you agree with Bennett’s characterization of the international community’s response to genocide? While reading, what did you think about the UN Security Council permanent member’s decision to obstruct decisive action in most instances of genocide?

In the history of the twentieth century, millions of people took part in globally connected nonviolent movements around the world, led by figures like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others. Their stories included tragic setbacks but also great victories over the brutal regimes whose violent methods failed to stop the revolutionary changes won through peaceful protest. The world wars and genocides of the twentieth century should not completely overshadow the triumphs of nonviolent movements, and the more peaceful world they delivered.

This video introduces several important instances of nonviolent protest on a local, national, and global scale in the twentieth century. Sharing ideas and inspiration, networks of communication and awareness encouraged and supported nonviolent movements and helped them spread. This video addresses the framing concepts of networks and communities, and also addresses the Unit Problem of the ways in which the rapid movement of people and ideas affects our sense of identity. Green encourages you to consider big questions related to the ways in which nonviolent movements have been as consequential as violent conflict in shaping the world today.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What major traditions influenced the ideas about nonviolence that were shared by Leo Tolstoy and Mohandas Gandhi?
2. How did Gandhi’s use of nonviolence specifically confront British colonial authorities in India?
3. What were the main characteristics of the Rosenstrasse protest of 1943, and what made it unique?
4. How did Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr. connect the success of the nonviolent independence movement in India to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States?
5. How did the Prague Spring movement begin and end?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Nonviolent movements developed in conversation with each other, influencing and inspiring each other around the world. How do you think the ability to communicate and share ideas across borders changed the identities and strategies of protestors? Were these movements different from similar protests in the long nineteenth century?
2. The video briefly mentions the colonial salt monopoly of British India, reflecting a profound injustice in the big frame of “production and distribution.” Why do you think Gandhi’s strategy was effective? What are some other injustices in the structures of production and distribution that exist today? How do people protest?