World War II Outcomes

Eleanor Roosevelt holding the UNDHR

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 10, 1948, three years after the end of WWII.

Its purpose was to establish a common framework of rights that all individuals are entitled to "without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."

The following paragraph comes from the preamble of this declaration.

"Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people…"

Why do you think that the U.N. included this paragraph in the declaration? Can you think of at least two events that occurred during WWII that fit the description of "acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind?"