HUMAN RIGHTS

LEAD-IN

In 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this declaration in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction".

(Preamble to the Declaration)

Among the rights proclaimed in the declaration are freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial and equal opportunities. What other rights and freedoms can you think of?

The following excerpts A - D from articles/reports relate to abuses of rights. Using the information in them, the expressions below and any ideas of your own, indicate which right has been abused in each case.

A.     It was reported that the authorities of the region of Transdniester refused registration to Methodists, noting that a Methodist leader had requested registration for two communities three times during the past six years and that the National Security Ministry not only warned him to stop applying for registration for his churches with the Transdniestran authorities but also asked him to cease cooperating with international organisations.

(Commission on Human Rights - Thematic Reports - 2002)

B.       The information related to Germany referred to the following incidents, inter alia: abuse of Palestinians by other people on the street; hate calls and mail sent to the Islamic community in Hesse, especially against women wearing scarves; verbal assaults in which a 10-year-old girl was called a "terrorist" by a classmate, a woman called "murderer; an arson attempt in front of a grocery shop belonging to the Pasing mosque; verbal attacks against a German-born student of Turkish nationality.

(Commission on Human Rights - Thematic Reports - 2002)

C.     Retired MI 5 agent, Ms Sara Coles, is due to appear in court today in the latest stage of her legal battle to have her memoirs Secret Agents, published, following a decision to ban the book. The government claims that Ms Coles' autobiography contains information which poses a threat to national security, while the author insists that the material is mostly personal experiences. "There's nothing damaging in the book; they have no right to ban it," Ms Cole commented yesterday. Copies of the book were recalled after the ban was imposed on Thursday.

D.     The Romanian NGO Equal Opportunities for Women reported that cases of trafficking in children that it dealt with rose from 8 in 1997 to 43 in 1999. In 1998 the NGO Save the Children dealt with 101 cases of children, mostly Roma, being taken to Germany and Italy and being forced to work as beggars or petty thieves; the country has an extensive system of orphanages with approximately 60,000 dependents, and many orphanages are complicit in letting girls escape into prostitution. Children forced out of orphanages between the ages of 16 and 18 often have no identity documents, very little education and few if any job skills.

(Commission on Human Rights - Thematic Reports - 2002)

Useful expressions Inference (conclusions that can be drawn from the information given in a sentence/paragraph)

Judging by the fact Considering that ., it is clear obvious that .

The fact that indicates proves that.

The way they were treated indicates suggests implies that .

is clearly obviously a case of . because ..

3.a Look at the ways of discrimination against people and the victims of discrimination below. Put a cross to indicate which groups are discriminated against in your country. Some may apply to more than one group.

3.b In pairs discuss any examples of discrimination you know of from personal experience.

3.c Do you agree with the points presented in 3.a? Why (not)? Using ideas from above, the useful expressions below and your own ideas, talk about the causes of discrimination in Romania.

Useful expressions: Cause and effect

There is often a lot of prejudice against minorities as a result /because of .

The (major) reason why people in my country discriminate against minorities is .

Fear and ignorance often lead to/result in prejudice against people of different .

4.a Match the comments below (1 -3) with the paragraphs they refer to (A - C).

The trouble is, if you're physically disabled, people tend to assume that you're also mentally handicapped - they talk to me as if I were a child.

Of course I resent the fact that they come over here and take our jobs, but it's more than that. They have different beliefs and customs and they don't - or won't - fit in.

I know they only gave him the job because they wanted a man - it's always the same.

(Adapted from V. Evans and J. Milton, Listening and Speaking Skills)

4.b Using the prompts below and ideas of your own, talk about how the problem of discrimination could be dealt with.

Education at school

Raising public awareness

Legislation

Protest marches

Others

READING

The following article can be divided into four parts, each of which deals with a stage in the life of what was to become 'America's most influential First Lady'. Identify those parts and suggest suitable headings for them. Some paragraphs have been removed from the article and placed at the end of it. This should not hinder you from performing the task.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

America's most influential First Lady blazed paths for women and led the battle for social justice everywhere

By Doris Kearns Goodwin

When Eleanor Roosevelt journeyed to New York City a week after her husband's funeral in April 1945, a cluster of reporters were waiting at the door of her Washington apartment. "The story is over", she said simply, assuming that her words and opinions would no longer be of interest once her husband was dead and she was no longer First Lady. She could not have been more mistaken. As the years have passed, Eleanor Roosevelt's influence and stature have continued to grow. Today she remains a powerful inspiration to leaders in both the civil rights and women's movements.

Eleanor shattered the ceremonial mold in which the role of the First Lady had traditionally been fashioned, and reshaped it around her own skills and her deep commitment to social reform. She gave a voice to people who did not have access to power. She was the first woman to speak in front of a national convention, to write a syndicated column*, to earn money as a lecturer, to be a radio commentator and to hold regular press conferences.

The path to this unique position of power had not been easy. The only daughter of an alcoholic father and a beautiful but aloof mother who was openly disappointed by Eleanor's lack of a pretty face, Eleanor was plagued by insecurity and shyness. An early marriage to her handsome fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Roosevelt, increased her insecurity and took away her one source of confidence: her work in a New York City settlement house. "For 10 years, I was always just getting over having a baby or about to have another one," she later lamented, "so my occupations were considerably restricted."

But thirteen years after her marriage, and after bearing six children, Eleanor resumed her search for her identity. The voyage began with a shock: the discovery in 1918 of love letters revealing that Franklin was involved with Lucy Mercer. "The bottom dropped out of my own particular world," she later said. "I faced myself, my surroundings, my world, honestly for the first time." There was talk of divorce, but when Franklin promised never to see Lucy again, the marriage continued. For Eleanor, a new path had opened, a possibility of standing apart from Franklin. No longer would she define herself solely in terms of his wants and needs. A new relationship was forged, on terms wholly different from the old.

She turned her energies to a variety of reformist organizations, joining a circle of postsuffrage** feminists dedicated to the abolition of child labor, the establishment of a minimum wage and the passage of legislation to protect workers. In the process she discovered that she had talents - for public speaking, for organizing, for articulating social problems. She formed an extraordinary constellation of lifelong female friends, who helped to assuage an enduring sense of loneliness. When Franklin was paralyzed by polio in 1921, her political activism became an even more vital force. She became Franklin's "eyes and ears," traveling the country gathering the grassroots knowledge he needed to understand the people he governed.

They made an exceptional team. She was more earnest, less devious, less patient, less fun, more uncompromisingly moral; he possessed the more trustworthy political talent, the more finely tuned sense of timing, the better feel for the citizenry, the smarter understanding of how to get things done. But they were linked by indissoluble bonds. Together they mobilized the American people to effect enduring changes in the political and social landscape of the nation.

Nowhere was Eleanor's influence greater than in civil rights. In her travels around the country, she developed a sophisticated understanding of race relations. When she first began inspecting New Deal*** programs in the South, she was stunned to find that blacks were being systematically discriminated against at every turn. Citing statistics to back up her story, she would interrupt her husband at any time, barging into his cocktail hour when he wanted only to relax, cross-examining him at dinner, handling him memos to read late at night. But her confrontational style compelled him to sign a series of Executive Orders barring discrimination in the administration of various New Deal projects. From that point on, African Americans share in the New Deal work projects expanded, and Eleanor's independent legacy began to grow.

She understood, for instance, the importance of symbolism in fighting discrimination. In 1938, while attending the Southern Conference for Human Welfare in Birmingham, Ala., she refused to abide by a segregation ordinance that required her to sit in the white section of the auditorium, apart from her black friends. [...1....]

During World War II, Eleanor remained an uncompromising voice on civil rights, insisting that America could not fight racism abroad while tolerating it at home. [...2...]

Eleanor's positions on civil rights were far in advance of her time: 10 years before the Supreme Court rejected the "separate but equal" doctrine, Eleanor argued that equal facilities were not enough: [...3...]

There were other warps and twists that caught her eye. Long before the contemporary women's movement provided ideological arguments for women's rights, Eleanor instinctively challenged institutions that failed to provide equal opportunity for women. [...4...]

Through her speeches and her columns, she provided a powerful voice in the campaign to recruit women workers to the factories during the war. "If I were of debutante age, I would go into a factory, where I could learn a skill and be useful," Eleanor told young women, cautioning them against marrying too hastily before they had the chance to expand their horizons. She was instrumental in securing the first government funds ever allotted for the building of childcare centers. And when women workers were unceremoniously fired as the war came to an end, she fought to stem the tide. [...5...]. What the women workers needed, she said, was the courage to ask for their rights with a loud voice.

For her own part, she never let the intense criticism that she encountered silence her. "If I . worried about mudslinging, I would have been dead long ago." Yet she insisted that she was not a feminist. She did not believe, she maintained, that "women should be judged, when it comes to appointing them, purely because they are women." [...6...] But the story of her life - her insistence on her right to an identity of her own apart from her husband and her family, her constant struggle against depression and insecurity, her ability to turn her vulnerabilities into strengths - provides an enduring example of a feminist who transcended the dictates of her times to become one of the century's most powerful and effective advocates for social justice.

(TIME, April 13, 1998)

Choose which of the paragraphs A - G below match the numbered gaps in the article. There is one extra paragraph, which does not belong in any of the gaps.

A       As First Lady, she held more than 300 press conferences that she cleverly restricted to women journalists, knowing that new organizations all over the country would be forced to hire their first female reporter in order to have access to the First Lady.

B       She wanted to see the country "get away from considering a man or woman from the point of view of religion, color or sex."

C       "Can't you muzzle that wife of yours? . Do you have lace on your panties for allowing her to speak out so much? . Why can't she stay home and tend to her knitting?"

D       She argued on principle that everyone who wanted to work had a right to be productive, and she railed against the closing of the childcare centers as a shortsighted response to a fundamental social need.

E        Progress was slow, but her continuing intervention led to broadened opportunities for blacks in the factories and shipyards at home and in the armed forces overseas.

F        The following year, she publicly resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution after it barred the black singer Marian Anderson from its auditorium.

G       "The basic fact of segregation, which warps and twists the lives of our Negro population, [is] itself discriminatory."

Make the best use of the context to explain the highlighted vocabulary items in the article by giving a definition, synonym or description of each.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Look at these sentences from the article and answer the questions.

(i)         What the women workers needed, she said, was the courage to ask for their rights with a loud voice.

What is the effect of the sentence?

Rearrange the words in the sentence differently. Does the sentence have the same effect?

Make up examples of your own.

(ii)       No longer would she define herself solely in terms of his wants and needs.

Nowhere was Eleanor's influence greater than in civil rights.

What can you notice about the word order?

What is the effect of the sentences?

Give two more similar examples of your own.

Study the following patterns and examples:

(i) Emphatic Structures

We use emphatic structures to emphasise a particular part of a sentence.

It is/was (not) + subject/object + that/who(m) (statements/negations)

It was the manager that/who(m) I complained to.

Is/was it + subject/object + that/who(m) (questions)

Is it your new colleague that/who(m) you are going to the theatre with?

Was it you who said the mail had arrived?

that is/was question word (statement)

That's what I thought when I heard the news.

is/was that +question word or question word + is/was it + that (questions)

Was that why she didn't attend the conference?

Why is it that you are always behind the schedule?

question word + subject + verb + is/was

What he needs is a long holiday.

(The reason) why he went to London was to meet with his business partners.

To express admiration, anger, concern we use question words with ever.

Whatever are you talking about?

do/does/did + bare infinitive is used in the Present Simple, Past Simple or Imperative to give emphasis.

I do promise to keep your secret. He did try not to disappoint her again. Do have some more coffee.

(ii) Inversion

We can invert the subject and the auxiliary verb in the sentence to give emphasis. This happens:

after certain negative, near-negative or restrictive expressions placed at the beginning of the sentence: Hardly/Scarcely (ever) . when, No sooner . than, In no way, In/Under no circumstances, Little, Never (before), Nor/Neither, Not even once, Not only . but also, Not since, Not till/until, Nowhere, Only by, Only in this way, On no account, On no occasion, Only then, Rarely, Seldom, In vain/vainly, By no means, Nowhere etc.

Examples

Barely/Hardly/Scarcely had she finished the report when her boss asked her to draft a business proposal. No sooner had they reached an agreement than trouble started.

Seldom have I seen such a charming gentleman.

Little does he know about his son's whereabouts.

In vain did I warn them.

Under no circumstances will she be allowed to take my car.

At no time was the President aware of what was happening.

Not only did we incur losses, but also our reputation was ruined.

Only then did we realize what they meant.

after not + object placed at the beginning of a sentence

Not a single word did she utter.

after so, such, to such a degree with that

So quickly did he finish his work that he was given a bonus.

Such a long holiday did he take that he forgot how to do his job.

in conditionals when if is omitted and should, were, had (Past Perfect) are placed at the beginning of the sentence

Should you be late, what excuse will you come up with?

Had she been invited, she would have come.

Were she here now, we could speak to her about it.

after so, neither/nor, as to express agreement  

We went out for a walk and so did my neighbours. 'I hate horror movies.' 'So do I.'

'I don't enjoy romance movies'. 'Neither does my sister.'

His teachers loved him, as did his classmates.

In the following structures we invert the subject and the main verb:

when an adverbial expressions of place or direction comes at the beginning of a clause, intransitive verbs are often put before their subjects; this happens especially when a new indefinite subject is being introduced

Along the road came a strange procession. I stopped the car and up walked a policeman. Here comes your brother. (but Here she comes.)

after adverb of place/adverbial particle + verb + subject (when subject = noun)

Off came the wheel. Out went the light. Back came the others. (but Back they came.)

in Direct Speech when the reporting verb comes after the quote

'What do you mean?' asked Henry. (or . Henry asked.)

'That's a queer thing,' thought the detective.

If the subject is a pronoun, it usually comes before the reporting verb

'When are you coming back?' he asked.

If the verb is in a compound tense, no inversion takes place ('I haven't seen him,' she would say.)

LANGUAGE PRACTICE

Complete the sentences using the words in bold. Use two to five words.

Example He didn't realise a surprise party awaited him.

know Little did he know a surprise party awaited him.

1. He won't leave the house under any circumstances.

will Under ......... leave the house.

2. I had just recovered from flu when I caught a bad cold.

sooner No ......... from flu than I caught a bad cold.

3. They managed to get our attention only by shouting and waving their arms.

manage Only by shouting and waving their arms ...... to get our attention. 

4. He only asks for help when he is really desperate.

ask Only when he is really desperate ........ for help. 

5. You never seem worried about your future.

seem Never ........ worried about your future.

6. I've never had such fun anywhere else.

else Nowhere ....... such fun.

7. Her husband and her friends warned her not to go alone.

as Her parents warned her not to go alone, ........husband. 

8. Unemployment hasn't been at such a high level since the 1930s.

been Not since the 1930s ...... at such a high level.

9. If there had been a phone nearby, he would have called an ambulance.

there Had ....... nearby, he would have called an ambulance.  

10. John forgot his mother's birthday and his wife's too.

did Bob didn't remember his mother's birthday; ........ his wife's.

11. Brown bread is healthier and tastier than white bread.

only Not ......... than white bread, but it's healthier too! 

12. This is the only way that the President can win the election.

this Only ........ the President win the election.

13. Hillary and Tenzing were the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

who It was ....... reached the summit of Mount Everest.

14. You have to be lucky to be successful in business.

can Only if you ........ successful in business.

15. You won't be given the job if you don't make a good impression.

will Only by ....... you be given the job.

16. The army marched forward into battle.

marched Forward ..... into battle.

17. He really said he was coming with us.

say He ........ with us.

18. Did you go to the Rivera Club last night?

it Was ...... you went to last night?

Rewrite each sentence, starting as shown, so that the meaning stays the same.

Example:  There was so much uncertainty that the financial markets remained closed.

Such was the uncertainty that the financial markets remained closed.

You won't be allowed in until your identity has been checked.

Only .........................

2. Just after the film started, there was a power failure.

No sooner

3. The President has hardly ever made a speech as inept as this.

Rarely

4. The way so much money has been spent to so little purpose must be a record! 

Never before ............................

5. Press photographers are banned from taking photographs backstage. 

On no

6. Three days passed before we received any word from them.

Not until

7. The accused never expressed regret for what he had done.

At no time

8. The demand for tickets was so great that people had to queue for hours on end. 

Such

9. The students were too nervous to concentrate on the subject.

So ....................

10. Mary had no idea what the new job involved.

Little

Complete each sentence with a suitable word or phrase. 

Example I supposed, as do most people, that I would be retiring at 60.

1. ......... had the doctors seen a more difficult case.

2. On no account am ....... while I am having a class.

3. Had ....... measures, this economic crisis could have been avoided.

4. Should ...... the area, why don't you drop in?

5. .... do you think you are doing, might I ask?

6. .... I performed well at the interview that I got the job.

7. .... to pay the full amount now, there would be a fifteen per cent discount. 

8. ...... our new colleague win a prize, but he was also offered a promotion.

9. Little ...... what has been going on since she left.

10. .....no means certain that the CEO will attend the meeting.

Find the word that should not be in the sentence. 

Example Only when did she finished her report was she paid.

It was Mark who he scored the first goal.

Whatever it is she talking about!

Not only is that her brother a good engineer, but he also writes well.

Never before once had he caught such a serious cold.

That was how had he deceived us.

Where I haven't been there is Casablanca.

So much loud was the noise that we had to close all the windows.

No sooner when had I got in than I was called back to the office.

Only by she trying hard can your sister overcome her difficulties.

It was last summer that they did got married.

Why is it this that you always feel guilty for his failures?

So much brilliant was his performance that the spectators cheered.

Do you make yourself comfortable, please.

What you need it is someone to help you.

He did left early in the morning.

I love Italian food and so does hates my son.

WRITING

Imagine that you are concerned about overcoming prejudice and/or discrimination against a particular group of people. How effective do you think the following approaches would be in changing people's attitudes, and why? What else might you do to achieve your aim?

protest marches, demonstrations, speeches, etc.

letters to media, politicians, etc. to demand new laws

support from celebrities and public figures

advertising in the media, organising concerts, slogans on T-shirts

books, films, etc. showing group in a positive way

Write an essay of about 200 - 250 words. Use the prompts above and the language, ideas and structures in this unit. To evaluate your paragraphs, ask yourself these questions:

Where is the topic sentence?

Have I limited the paragraph to one main topic?

Have I thoroughly supported and developed this topic?

If the paragraph looks long, how can I break it into shorter paragraphs?

You may find this information about paragraphing useful:

A paragraph is made up of statements closely related to a single topic. When writing paragraphs, you should always plan them to serve the reader. You can do this by:

limiting a paragraph to statements that explain, describe, develop, or support one topic

announcing the topic early in the paragraph by using a topic sentence.

The topic sentence introduces and summarizes the central point of what the paragraph is all about. By making the first sentence the topic sentence, as in the example below, the reader will not have to dig into the paragraph to find out the paragraph's main point. Also, the reader can skim topic sentences to get the gist of your essay/letter/report/etc.

Example 1

Less than two decades after Congress outlawed job discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, religion and age, discrimination in hiring is rising its ugly head again. Today's new targets are smokers. Scores of employers, including a police department in Holden, Mass., and a fire department in Janesville, Wis., won't hire them. It doesn't matter if the employees do not smoke during working hours or if they limit their smoking to the privacy of their homes. If they smoke at all, they won't be hired.

NEWSWEEK, April 13, 1986)

Example 2

It can be argued that making smoking a job-related issue is not fair. Whether or not you smoke does not make you a good employee. Some people will always waste time either smoking or talking. Does it matter if you fritter away your time chattering or smoking? Similarly, smokers do not necessarily create more dirt in the workplace. Not all smokers flick ashes on the floor while they talk, or press cigarette butts into the floor. People are individuals.

(Baudoin et al Reader's Choice)