ABSTRACT
Today’s children and youth often have only a vague notion of what led to World War II, the vast number of persons and places involved in the war, and the steps the victorious nations took afterwards to reconstruct the world. One major result of that war was the articulation of human rights and their assignation in the conduct of public affairs.
The horrors of the Second World War and the revulsion at the genocide of millions of Jews and other innocent civilians led the United Nations in 1948 to produce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, composed of 20 articles spelling out the right to life, liberty, property, equality, justice, freedom of religion, free speech, peaceful assembly, and asylum. Slavery, torture and arbitrary detention were also outlawed. In addition to these 20 articles concerned with political and civil rights, the declaration contains 10 articles that address what can broadly be called economic and social rights, like the right of everyone to a standard of living adequate to assure health and well-being; adequate food, water and shelter, even security in sickness and old age. (Gruhn, 1985, p. 446)
