Episode 1: Revolutionary Ideas: Human Rights in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Welcome to Teaching Big Concepts in Small Spaces, a podcast brought to you by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. What does that mean in reality, and how is it ensured that it applies to all humans? Has it always said “all human beings”, or has the vocabulary changed? Why is the evolution of ideas of human rights important for us now? In this episode, PhD Candidate in History Tibisay Navarro-Mana will answer some of these questions while we explore how definitions of human rights have changed over time, and what the most important moments in history for its development have been.
Join us in discovering the significance of the French and American Revolutions, learning about how vocabulary has changed over time to become more inclusive, and uncovering the human rights contradictions intrinsic to colonial rule in our first episode; Revolutionary Ideas: Human Rights in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Probing Questions
What exactly are human rights? Can we agree on a universal definition that respects the diversity of beliefs of people around the world and in different cultures?
Should some rights have priority over others?
How should the international community respond to violations of human rights within, and outside of their own countries?
As different societies and technologies change over time, how do we decide that there should be more rights to respond to threats that maybe did not exist in the past?
And finally, after listening to this episode, think about the relationship between the first ideas around human rights, and the ideas of imperialism and inequality.
Describe the significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its historical context.
How did the French and American Revolutions contribute to the development of human rights?
Discuss the limitations and challenges faced in the early recognition of human rights.
Supplemental Materials and Sources Mentioned in the Episode:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948)
Declaration of the Rights of men and of the citizen (France, 1789)
Olympe de Gouges, The Declaration of the Rights of Woman (September 1791)
Poem: “The White Men’s Burdain” by Rudyard Kipling (1899)
Read the transcript of this episode here.