On the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Theme of Memory and the Past

The phrase "history repeats itself" is a cliché for a reason—in most cases, if we don't study the past and try to learn from it, the same stuff will happen again.

That's why you're here—to learn from the people who came before you.

It's also why Eleanor Roosevelt was so eager for the United Nations to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Nazis murdered millions of innocent people during the Holocaust, and millions more died fighting the Nazis in World War II. It was messy, it was long, and it was an especially scary kind of sinister. While most of the world couldn't agree on anything, they were all on the same page when it came to preventing similar atrocities from ever happening again.

That meant learning from World War II and the events leading up to it, and addressing the mistakes. For Roosevelt, it all came back to human rights.

1. Eleanor Roosevelt delivered "On the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" in Paris. What other important historical events have taken place in Paris? Are they significant to the declaration? Why or why not?
2. Where do you see parallels between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the other documents Roosevelt mentions in lines 45-46? Where do you see differences?
3. Do you think the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has influenced other people and events in the years since its adoption in 1948? Why or why not? How does that contribute to the idea of memorializing and learning from the past?
4. In line 47, Roosevelt says, "At a time when there are so many issues on which we find it difficult to reach a common basis of agreement, it is a significant fact that 58 states have found such a large measure of agreement in the complex field of human rights." Do you think this statement holds up today? If not, have we as a country, and as a member of the United Nations, really learned from the past?

The Holocaust was the largest human rights violation in history. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights likely wouldn't exist if such a large-scale genocide had never happened.

Many of the issues that inspired the creation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and the Bill of Rights also led the United Nations to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.