Evolution of Human Rights Standards Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The first international document to use the words 'human rights' was the UN Charter.

The Charter of the United Nations, signed at San Francisco in June 1945, reaffirms in its preamble 'faith in fundamental human rights' and lists promoting respect for human rights among the purposes of the UN in Article 1(3). It was the first international treaty to use the expression.

The Covenant of the League of Nations (1919) did not refer to human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights came later, in 1948, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1966, both building on the Charter's commitment.

Answer: D

The Geneva Declaration was adopted in 1924.

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, drafted by Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children, was adopted by the League of Nations in 1924 and is known as the Geneva Declaration. In five short principles it set out that children must be given the means for their normal development, be fed, nursed and helped, be first to receive relief in times of distress, and be protected against exploitation.

It was the first international human rights document on children. The UN adopted a fuller Declaration in 1959 and the binding Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989; 1926, 1928 and 1936 are not the year of the Geneva Declaration.

Answer: B

The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted in 1989.

The UN General Assembly adopted the CRC on 20 November 1989, and it entered into force in September 1990. It is the most widely ratified human rights treaty; India acceded in 1992.

1966 is the year of the two International Covenants, 2006 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and 2003 is not linked with the CRC.

Answer: B

The modern conception of human rights developed after the Second World War.

The atrocities of the Second World War, above all the Holocaust, led the international community to treat human rights as a matter of international concern. The UN Charter of 1945 made respect for human rights a purpose of the organisation, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights followed in 1948, beginning the modern system of human rights law.

The First World War led to the League of Nations and minority treaties but not to a general human rights framework, the Gulf War came in 1990-91, and 'World War' alone does not identify the event.

Answer: B

The International Year of Disabled Persons was 1981.

The UN General Assembly proclaimed 1981 the International Year of Disabled Persons, with the theme of full participation and equality. It led to the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons (1982) and the UN Decade of Disabled Persons (1983-1992).

1982 is the year of the World Programme of Action and 1983 the start of the Decade, so they follow the Year rather than being it.

Answer: D

The International Bill of Human Rights consists of all of the above.

The term refers to three instruments taken together: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), with the optional protocols to the ICCPR.

Each of the three alone is only part of the Bill, so choosing just one of them is incomplete.

Answer: A

The issue was slavery.

In the nineteenth century the campaign against the slave trade and slavery made human rights an international concern. Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 and slavery in its colonies in 1833, the United States abolished slavery by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, and the General Act of the Brussels Conference of 1890 was an early multilateral treaty against the slave trade.

Poverty, torture and disability became subjects of international human rights instruments only in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, for example the Convention against Torture of 1984 and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006.

Answer: B

The words are Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The UDHR was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948. Its Article 1 reads that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, endowed with reason and conscience, and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. It sets out the foundation of equality and dignity for the rest of the Declaration.

The English Bill of Rights (1689) limited the Crown, the US Constitution's Article 1 deals with Congress, and Article 1 of the ICCPR (1966) concerns the right of peoples to self-determination.

Answer: A

The decade was 1983-1992.

Following the International Year of Disabled Persons in 1981, the UN General Assembly adopted the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons in 1982 and proclaimed 1983-1992 the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons to carry it out.

1993-2002 was the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons proclaimed by ESCAP, not the UN General Assembly decade, and 1973-1982 and 1963-1972 were not designated for disabled persons.

Answer: B

The theme was All human rights for all.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on 10 December 1948. For its 50th anniversary in 1998, the United Nations ran a year-long campaign under the theme 'All Human Rights for All', stressing that civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are indivisible.

The other three phrases were not the anniversary theme.