In 2023, both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention marked their 75th anniversary, but the concept of human rights goes back much further. In the first season of Big Concepts in Small Spaces, we trace the origins of how we’ve defined human rights and how they’ve shaped how we understand the crime of genocide.

Episode 1: Revolutionary Ideas: Human Rights in the 18th and 19th centuries

Episode 2: War for (and against) Human Rights (1900-1945)

Episode 3: Unveiling Justice: Evolution of Human Rights Since 1945

Episode 4: Behind the G word: Human Rights and the Genocide Convention

Episode 5: Education in the aftermath of genocide: Interview with Albert Rutikanga

Teaching Big Concepts in Small Spaces is a project from the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota.