Human Rights Unit

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." -- Thomas Jefferson -- Declaration of Independence

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We will be studying human rights in our upcoming unit.  One of our major focuses will be The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  This document was published by the United Nations in 1948 just after the Second World War.  The goal was to make sure the human rights violations of World War Two were never repeated.  Here is the history of this document.

We will also study the plain language version of this document.

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The United States has quite a few rights defined in our Constitution by the Bill of Rights and other amendments.

"And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons." -- Abraham Lincoln -- The Emancipation Proclamation