Human rights in past and present

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights came about as a response to the crimes committed during the Second World War. Their claim of validity is universal and equal for all – and yet human rights are still not recognized everywhere in the world.

”All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”: so runs the first sentence of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. This declaration was in large part a response to the experiences undergone during the Second World War, Nazi forced labour and the Holocaust. For the first time in human history, guarantees concerning personal security, the right to freedom and action, and economic, social and cultural rights were laid down in 30 articles. Human rights are indivisible and inalienable rights which should belong to every person in the world. They are applicable regardless of differences such as race, skin colour, gender, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, and also to people whose nationality is different to the country in which they reside.

In the EUROPEANS FOR PEACE programme, the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” funds international project partnerships between schools and youth organisations from Germany, Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe or Israel which wish to examine issues of human rights transnationally from a historical or present day perspective. Historical reference points should be issues of National Socialism, the Holocaust and the Second World War and post-War history. Present day topics concern human rights violations and how each of us can play a part in ensuring and upholding human rights today. The call for applications links up here with the experience and results of past programme years in which young people investigated European war and post-war history and individuals’ motives for joining the struggle for peace, democracy and human rights.

The projects should investigate actual cases of human rights abuse and highlight the people and organizations that have resisted them. They should question why the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still relevant today and why human rights are still not recognized everywhere. Why do they need to be defended by institutions and civil society? Why are poverty, environmental pollution, violence, conflict and war connected to human rights abuses? How can human rights be supported effectively?

The projects should contribute to making people less susceptible to ideologies of inequality such as anti-Semitism and racism by illustrating the appeal of ideas of freedom and equality. Aim is to encourage the call for concrete human rights and the measuring of politics and economies against the yardstick of how well these demands are met. The projects increase the individual awareness in the necessity of protecting and defending human rights.

Here some project examples to present topic „Human Rights in present and past”

The application form can be found here.