1. 1933-1939
A series of discriminatory laws pass in Germany which progressively exclude
people of Jewish ancestry from employment, education, housing, healthcare,
marriages of their choice, pension entitlements, professions such as law and
medicine, and public accommodations. In addition, Germany begins murdering
physically and mentally disabled people by gas, lethal injection and forced
starvation.
The first major law to curtail the rights of Jewish citizens was the Law for the
Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (the ―April Law‖), according to which
Jewish and ―politically unreliable‖ civil servants and employees were to be
excluded from state service.
The Nuremburg Laws were in fact two laws: The Law for the Protection of German
Blood and German Honor, prohibited marriages and extra-marital intercourse
between ―Jews ‖ (the name was now officially used in place of ―non-Aryans ‖)
and ―Germans ‖ and also the employment of ―German ‖ females under age 45 in
Jewish households. The second law, The Reich Citizenship Law, stripped Jews of
their German citizenship and introduced a new distinction between ―Reich
citizens ‖ and ―nationals.‖

2. The Nuremberg Laws did not identify a ―Jew‖ as someone with particular religious
beliefs. Instead, the first amendment to the Nuremberg Laws defined anyone
who had three or four Jewish grandparents as a Jew, regardless of whether that
individual recognized himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish
religious community. Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism or who had
not done so for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even
people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity could be
defined as Jews.
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935
heralded a new wave of anti-
semitic legislation that brought
about immediate and concrete
segregation: Jewish patients
were no longer admitted to
municipal hospitals in Düsseldorf;
German court judges could not
cite legal commentaries or
opinions written by Jewish
authors; Jewish officers were
expelled from the army; and
Jewish university students were
not allowed to sit for doctoral
exams.

3. 1935-1953
Joseph Stalin uses the murder of Sergei Kirov, probably ordered by Stalin himself, to launch a
reign of terror—the Great Purges. Kirov was a full member of the ruling Politburo, leader of the
Leningrad party apparatus, and an influential member of the ruling elite. His concern for the
welfare of the workers in Leningrad and his skill as an orator had earned him considerable
popularity. Some party members had even approached him secretly with the proposal that he
take over as general secretary.
It is doubtful that Kirov represented an immediate threat to Stalin‘s predominance, but he did
disagree with some of Stalin‘s policies, and Stalin had begun to doubt the loyalty of members
of the Leningrad apparatus. In need of a pretext for launching a broad purge, Stalin evidently
decided that murdering Kirov would be expedient. The murder was carried out by a young
assassin named Leonid Nikolaev. Recent evidence has indicated that Stalin and the NKVD
planned the crime.
Stalin then used the murder as an excuse for introducing draconian laws against political crime
and for conducting a witch-hunt for alleged conspirators against Kirov. Over the next four-and-
a-half years, millions of innocent party members and others were arrested—many of them for
complicity in the vast plot that supposedly lay behind the killing of Kirov. From the Soviet point
of view, his murder was probably the crime of the century because it paved the way for the
Great Terror. Stalin never visited Leningrad again and directed one of his most vicious post-War
purges against the city —Russia‘s historic window to the West. It is estimated that some 20
million Russian citizens were killed or died in the Gulags, a vast majority for crimes they never
committed.

4. 1939-1945
During World War II, an estimated
6 million European Jews are
exterminated by Adolf Hitler‘s
Nazi regime. Millions of civilians
(gypsies, Communists, Soviet
POWs, Poles, Ukrainians, people
with disabilities, labor unionists,
―habitual‖ criminals, Socialists,
Jehovah‘s Witnesses,
homosexuals, Free Masons and
indigent people such as vagrants
and beggars) are forced into
concentration camps, subjected
to ―medical‖ experiments,
starved, brutalized and/or
murdered.

5. 1941
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill adopt the Atlantic
Charter, a joint proclamation by the United States
and Britain declaring that they were fighting the
Axis powers to ―ensure life, liberty, independence
and religious freedom and to preserve the rights of
man and justice.‖ The Atlantic Charter served as a
foundation stone for the later establishment of the
United Nations, setting forth several principles for
the nations of the world, including—the
renunciation of all aggression, right to self-
government, access to raw materials, freedom
from want and fear, freedom of the seas, and
disarmament of aggressor nations.
In his subsequent State of the Union Address,
Roosevelt identifies ―Four Freedoms‖ as essential
for all people: freedom of speech, freedom of
religion, freedom from want, and freedom from
fear.

6. 1942
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs
Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which forcibly moves over 110,000
Japanese Americans from the coastal regions of the western United States to
isolated inland internment camps. Their detention lasts almost four years.
The Order allowed the military to remove any group
from an area without a reason. Executive Order 9066
provided the legal authority for the mass imprisonment
of Japanese-Americans. Although there were some
willful reallocations, the vast majority of people were
forced into Concentration Camps (now referred to as
Relocation Camps.) Not only was this a violation of civil
rights, but they were forced to sell their property (at just
a fraction of it worth), and most importantly they were
robbed of their dignity.

7. 1944
Representatives from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China meet at
Dumbarton Oaks to create the foundation for the United Nations. The conference had the task of
preparing a charter for a ―general international organization,‖ which was given the name of the
wartime alliance, the United Nations (UN). In imitation of the League of Nations, the new UN
would possess a Security Council, a General Assembly, a Secretariat, and an International Court
of Justice. To avoid, however, the pitfalls of the League of Nations, the conferees concluded that
unanimous votes should not be mandatory to reach decisions in the Security Council or the
General Assembly; all signatories must agree in advance to act on the Security Council‘s findings;
contingents of the armed forces of member states must be at Security Council disposal; and that
the creation of an Economic and Social Council was necessary. All participants agreed on the
right of the permanent Security Council members to exercise the veto to prevent the UN from
taking any action against themselves.

9. Part VI:
From the Nuremberg Trials
to the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights
Human Rights Timeline

10. 1945
The May 7, 1945
issue of Life
magazine is
published. It
contains a special
report…

17. 1945-1949
In the Nuremberg Trials, the Allied powers prosecute Nazi leaders for war
crimes and crimes against humanity. It is the first criminal trial in history to
prosecute crimes committed by individuals during wartime.

18. 1945
The United Nations (UN) is established. The Charter of the UN states that one of the
primary purposes of the UN is the promotion and encouragement of ―respect for
human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race,
sex, language or religion.‖ Unlike the League of Nations Covenant, the UN
Charter underscores the principle of individual human rights.
As outlined in the charter, the two main bodies of
the United Nations are the General Assembly,
composed of all member nations, and the Security
Council. The Council consists of the five victors from
World War II (known as ―The Big Five‖) as permanent
members—China, France, the United Kingdom, the
USSR (now Russia), and the United States—and 10
other countries, elected by the General Assembly,
that serve two-year terms. The Security Council is
the principal UN organ responsible for ensuring
peace, and its decisions are binding on all member
states. The five permanent members were given
individual veto power over issues brought before
the Council.

19. 1946-1948
The Tokyo War Crime Trials take place under the Direction of General
Douglas MacArthur. As in Nuremberg, Japanese leaders were tried for
―crimes against peace‖ and military officials are tried for ―conventional
war crimes‖ and ―crimes against humanity.‖
The American public largely ignored the war crimes trials in Tokyo and
throughout Asia in 1946-1948. Unlike the charismatic Nazi leadership,
who were infamous throughout Europe, the Japanese leadership was
not well known. That was due in part to the Allied propaganda, which
did not want to criminalize the Emperor. If the Allied public saw him as a
criminal, they would demand his removal, which would have prolonged
the war.
The men put on trial in 1947 and 1948 were the first of 20,000 civilian and
military former leaders who had either killed prisoners or had
participated in the vague crime of instigating the war. While many
would endure prison sentences of varying lengths, 900 were executed in
trials around Asia.

20. At the trials, numerous eyewitness accounts of the Nanking Massacre were
provided by Chinese civilian survivors and western nationals living in Nanking at
the time. The accounts included gruesome details. Thousands of innocent
civilians were buried alive, used as targets for bayonet practice, shot in large
groups, and thrown into the Yangtze River. Rampant rapes (and gang rapes) of
women ranging from age seven to over seventy were reported. The international
community estimated that within the six weeks of the Massacre, 20,000 women
were raped, many of them subsequently murdered or mutilated; and over
300,000 people were killed, often with the most inhumane brutality.

21. 1946
• The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN, charged with
investigating social and cultural topics, establishes the Commission of
Human Rights. The commission‘s initial objective was to draft an
international statement defining human rights.
• The Commission on the Status of Women is established by ECOSOC
(where it was originally a sub-commission of the Commission on
Human Rights.)
• Following the Nuremberg trials, an international conference is held in
Paris to establish an international criminal code. Out of this meeting,
the International Criminal Court (ICC) is born: a permanent tribunal to
prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war
crimes, and the crime of aggression (although it cannot currently
exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression). The creation of the
ICC perhaps constitutes the most significant reform of international
law since 1945. It gives teeth to the two bodies of international law
that deal with treatment of individuals: human rights and
humanitarian law.

22. 1946
U.S. President Harry S. Truman creates the President’s Committee on Civil Rights.
The committee was charged with: (1) examining the condition of civil rights in the
United States, (2) producing a written report of their findings, and (3) submitting
recommendations on improving civil rights in the United States. In December
1947, the committee produced To Secure These Rights: The Report of the
President’s Committee on Civil Rights. In the report, it proposed to improve the
exiting civil rights laws; to establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission, Joint
Congressional Committee on Civil Rights, and a Civil Rights Division in the
Department of Justice; to develop federal protection from lynching; to create a
Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC); to abolish poll taxes; and urged
other measures. On July 26, 1948, President Truman advanced the
recommendations of the report by signing executive which ordered the
desegregation of the federal workforce and the desegregation of the armed
services.
African-American soldiers and civilians had fought a two-front battle during World
War II. There was the enemy overseas, and also the battle against prejudice at
home. ―Soldiers were fighting the world's worst racist, Adolph Hitler, in the world‘s
most segregated army.‖ says historian and National Geographic explorer in
residence Stephen Ambrose. ―The irony did not go unnoticed.‖

23. Over 2.5 million African-American men
registered for the draft, and black women also
volunteered in large numbers. While serving in
the Army, Army Air Forces, Navy, Marine Corps,
and Coast Guard.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African
American military aviators in the United States
armed forces. During World War II, African
Americans in many U.S. states still were subject
to Jim Crow laws. The American military was
racially segregated, as was much of the
federal government. The Tuskegee Airmen
were subject to racial discrimination, both
within and outside the army. Despite these
adversities, they flew with distinction. They were
particularly successful in their missions as
bomber escorts in Europe.
Contrary to negative predictions from some
quarters, those accepted for training, far from
failing, had resulted in some of the best pilots in
the U.S. Army Air Corps.

24. 1947
India receives independence after years of non-violent protests led by Mahatma Gandhi.
Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on
October 2, 1869, he went to England to study
law when he was 19 and returned to India in
1891. Two years later, he left again, this time
for South Africa, where he was to stay for 20
years. He was the country‘s first ―colored‖
lawyer to be admitted to the bar. Deeply
troubled by the country‘s racism towards
Indians, he founded the Natal Indian
Congress to agitate for Indian rights in 1894.
There he also developed his politics of
peaceful protests. In 1906, he announced he
would go to jail or even die before obeying
an anti-Asian law. Thousands of Indians joined
him in this civil disobedience campaign, and
he was twice imprisoned.

25. He returned to India in 1914, and began campaigning for home rule and the
reconciliation of all classes and religious groups. In 1919 he became a leader in
the newly-formed Indian National Congress party. The following year Gandhi
launched a campaign of non-cooperation with the British authorities, urging
Indians to boycott British courts and government, and spin their own fabrics to
replace British goods. This led to his imprisonment from 1922-1924.
By 1930 M.K. Gandhi had a mass following. To protest against the British salt
monopoly and the salt tax, he led thousands of Indians on a 200 mile (320km)
march to the Indian ocean to make their own salt. Again, he was jailed. Gandhi
had become convinced that India could never be truly free as long as it
remained part of the British Empire. At the beginning of the Second World War
he demanded independence as India‘s price for helping Britain during the war.
India finally won independence in 1947, but for Mahatma Gandhi, triumph was
tempered with disappointment over the violent partitioning of the country into
India and Pakistan. Violent riots broke out over partition. Nearly one million
people died in the riots that ensued between Hindus and Muslims.
His efforts to achieve reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims eventually
brought him death. He was assassinated by a fellow Hindu who felt that Gandhi
had betrayed the Hindu cause.

26. 1948
• The ILO passes the Convention on the Freedom of Association and Protection
of the Right to Organize. There can be neither social dialogue nor progress
toward social justice without freedom of association. Freedom of association
gives workers a voice with which to express their aspirations, strengthens their
position in collective bargaining and enables them to participate in the
framing and implementing of economic and social policy. It is furthermore a
prerequisite for cooperation on equal footing between workers, employers
and government.
• The Organization of American States adopts the Declaration of the Rights of
Man.
• The UN adopts the Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide, confirming that genocide, whether committed in time of peace
or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to
prevent and to punish.
• The UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the primary international articulation of the fundamental and inalienable
rights of all human beings and the first comprehensive agreement among
nations with regards to the specific rights and freedom of all human beings.

27. Part VII:
From the Beginning of
Apartheid
to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Winning the Nobel Peace Prize
Human Rights Timeline

28. 1948
The government of South Africa begins enacting more rigorous and
authoritarian segregation laws that cement the ideology of
apartheid into law. The laws detail how and where the colored
population lives and works, strip the colored population of their
ability to vote, and got to great length to maintain white racial
purity.
In basic principles, apartheid
did not differ that much from
the policy of segregation of
the South African
governments existing before
the Afrikaner Nationalist Party
came to power in 1948. The
main difference is that
apartheid made segregation
part of the law.

29. 1949
The Australian Parliament passes the Social Services Consolidation
Act, which provides a number of federal benefits to Aboriginal
natives of Australia who meet qualifications that were largely in
accord with Parliament's assimilationist policy towards the Aboriginal
people
The ILO adopts the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining.
The Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of International
Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War (Geneva
Convention) approves standards for more humane treatment for
prisoners of war, the wounded and civilians.
The Statute of the Council of Europe asserts that human rights and
fundamental freedoms are the basis of the emerging European
system.

31. 1950-1954
US Senator Joseph McCarthy launches his anti-Communist campaign,
charging, but not substantiating, treachery among top ranks of the U.S.
Government.

32. 1950
The Office of the United Nations High Commission of Refugees is
established by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency
is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to
protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. The
agency is to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek
asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to
return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third
country.
The UN adopts the European Convention on Human Rights and
the Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and
Exploitation or Prostitution of Others.
The Mattachine Society organizes in Los Angeles to fight
discrimination against gays in housing, employment and
assembly, and to lobby for the enactment of a bill of rights for
gays.

33. In 1948, as Senator Joseph McCarthy railed against homosexuals in the State
Department, Harry Hay, an English communist who had emigrated to the United
States, working on the Henry Wallace presidential campaign, wrote a startling
document, declaring homosexuals an oppressed minority. While the idea is
widely accepted today, at the time the notion of homosexuals as a minority was
considered absurd. But it was this key concept that would eventually bring the
gay and lesbian rights movement together.
Mattachine Society meetings often took place in secret with members using
aliases. Like the Communist Party, the organization was organized in a cell
structure that was non-centralized so that should a confiscation of records occur
only limited information would be available to the authorities. Given the risk that
homosexuals presented the to Communist Party, Hay resigned from the Party in
1951.
The Mattachine Society grew into a national movement, and in conjunction with
a lesbian organization, the Daughters of Bilitis, became the above ground civil
rights organizations for gays and lesbians until the Stonewall riot in 1969.

34. 1951
The UN adopts the Convention on the
Status of Refugees, the first truly
international agreement covering the
most fundamental aspects of a refugee‘s
life. It spelled out a set of basic human
rights which should be at least equivalent
to freedoms enjoyed by foreign nationals
living legally in a given country and in
many cases those of citizens of that state.
It recognized the international scope of
refugee crises and the necessity of
international cooperation, including
burden sharing among states, in tackling
the problem. A key provision stipulates that refugees
should not be returned to a country
It defines what the term ‗refugee‘ means. where they fear persecution. It also
It outlines a refugee‘s rights including such spells out people or groups of people
things as freedom of religion and who are not covered by the
movement, the right to work, education Convention.
and accessibility to travel documents, but
it also underscores a refugee‘s obligations
to a host government.

35. Who is a refugee?
Article 1 of the Convention defines a refugee as ―A person who is
outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-
founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion;
and is unable or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that
country, or to return there, for fear of persecution.‖

36. 1952
The U.S. Congress passes the Immigration and Nationality Act (also
known as the McCarran-Walter Act), which ends the last racial and
ethnic barriers to naturalization of aliens living in the United States, but
reduces the ethnic quotas for immigrants to the United States from
eastern and southeastern Europe.
The INA defined three types of immigrants: 1. immigrants with special
skills or relatives of U.S. citizens who were exempt from quotas and who
were to be admitted without restrictions; 2. average immigrants whose
numbers were not supposed to exceed 270,000 per year; 3. refugees.
The Act allowed the government to deport immigrants or naturalized
citizens engaged in subversive activities and also allowed the barring of
suspected subversives from entering the country. It was used over the
years to bar members and former members and ―fellow travelers‖ of the
Communist Party from entry into the United States, even those who had
not been associated with the party for decades.

38. The UN adopts the Convention on the Political Rights of Women.
Desiring to implement the principle of equality of rights for men and women
contained in the Charter of the United Nations, recognizing that everyone has
the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or indirectly
through freely chosen representatives, and has the right to equal access to
public service in his country, and desiring to equalize the status of men and
women in the enjoyment and exercise of political rights, in accordance with the
provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, having resolved to conclude a Convention for this purpose,
hereby agree as hereinafter provided:
Article I: Women shall be entitled to vote in all elections on equal terms with men
without any discrimination.
Article II: Women shall be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies,
established by national law, on equal terms with men, without any
discrimination.
Article III: Women shall be entitled to hold public office and to exercise all public
functions, established by national law, on equal terms with men, without any
discrimination.

39. 1953
The Council of Europe creates the European Commission on Human
Rights and the Court of Human Rights, the highest court of the European
Union, located in Strasbourg, France.

40. 1954
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown vs. Board of Education that racial
segregation in public school is unconstitutional.
The 1957 integration events at Central High School in Little Rock,
Arkansas, are some of the most well known of the Civil Rights era.
Following the 1954 Brown vs. Board decision, the Little Rock School Board
agreed to proceed with desegregation of local schools, beginning with
Central High School. In September 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval
Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard; ostensibly to maintain
peace and order. After the Arkansas Guardsmen prevented black
students from entering the school, President Eisenhower got involved,
sending 1000 members of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock. Nine
African-American students attended Central High School that year,
including Minnijean Brown, who was famously suspended after dumping
a bowl of chili on the heads of white bullies. Ernest Green became the
first black student to graduate from Central High School in 1958. Little
Rock schools were not fully integrated across grade levels until 1972.

42. 1955
The Daughters of Bilitis is founded in San Francisco as
an organization to work for the acceptance of
lesbians as respectable citizens of society.
The U.S. adopts the Standard Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners. Although not legally binding,
the Standards provide guidelines for international and
domestic law as regards persons held in prisons and
other forms of custody. They set out what is generally
accepted as being good principle and practice in
the treatment of prisoners and the management of
penal institutions.

43. 1957-1958
Great Britain decriminalizes homosexual behavior between two
consenting adults but bans gays in the military.
The UN adopts the Convention on Nationality of Married Women.
The ILO adopts the Convention Concerning Abolition of Forced
Labour.
The ILO adopts the Convention Concerning Indigenous and Tribal
Populations.
The ILO adopts the Convention Concerning Discrimination in
Employment and Occupation.

44. 1960
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is established as an
advisory body to the Organization of American States. The IACHR has
the principal function of promoting the observance and the defense of
human rights. All 35 independent states of the Americas, including
Canada and the United States, are members of the OAS.
The Convention Against Discrimination in Education is adopted by the
UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The term
―discrimination‖ includes any distinction, exclusion, limitation or
preference which, being based on race, color, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic condition or
birth, has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing equality or
treatment in education.
Following an anti-apartheid protest challenging a law dictating where
colored people can go, at which 69 protestors are killed by police, the
South African government bans the African National Congress (ANC)
and other opposition groups.

45. 1961
Peter Benenson, an English labor lawyer, founds Amnesty International, a
global movement of 2.8 million supporters, members and activists in more than
150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human
rights. Amnesty‘s vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights
standards. The organization is independent of any government, political
ideology, economic interest or religion and is funded mainly by membership
and public donations.
Amnesty International primarily targets governments, but also reports on non-
governmental bodies and private individuals (―non-state actors‖)
There are six key areas which Amnesty deals with:
• Women‘s, Children‘s, Minorities‘
and Indigenous rights
• Ending Torture
• Abolition of the death penalty
• Rights of Refugees
• Rights of Prisoners of Conscience
• Protection of Human dignity

47. From right to left:
1 - East Berlin
2 - Border area
3 - Backland Wall
4 - Signal fence
5 - Different kind
of barriers
6 - Watch towers
7 - Lighting
system
8 - Column track
9 - Control track
10 - Anti-vehicle
trenches
11 - Last Wall,
known as the
―Wall‖
12 – Border
13 - West Berlin

48. The Berlin Wall goes up. The Wall was the physical division between West
Berlin and East Germany. However, it was also the symbolic boundary
between democracy and Communism during the Cold War.
Just past midnight on the night of August 12-13, 1961, trucks with soldiers
and construction workers rumbled through East Berlin. While most Berliners
were sleeping, these crews began tearing up streets that entered into
West Berlin, dug holes to put up concrete posts, and strung barbed wire
all across the border between East and West Berlin. Telephone wires
between East and West Berlin were also cut.
Berliners were shocked when they woke up that morning. What had once
been a very fluid border was now rigid. No longer could East Berliners
cross the border for operas, plays, soccer games, etc. No longer could the
approximately 60,000 commuters head to West Berlin for well-paying jobs.
No longer could families, friends, and lovers cross the border to meet their
loved ones. Whichever side of the border one went to sleep on during the
night of August 12, they were stuck on that side for decades.
The Berlin Wall stretched over a hundred miles. It ran not only through the
center of Berlin, but also wrapped around West Berlin, entirely cutting
West Berlin off from the rest of East Germany.

49. 1962
Voting rights, though not compulsory, are extended to all Aborigines and Torres
Strait Islanders by the Australian Parliament. (In 1984 the electoral law is changed
to remove any distinctions between indigenous peoples and other citizens.)

50. 1963
The great civil rights march on
Washington, DC takes place. The
March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom, was organized by a
group of civil rights, labor, and
religious organizations. At the
Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther
King delivered his immortal ―I have
a Dream‖ speech. The march,
which attracted an estimated
300,000, is widely credited with
helping to pass the Civil Rights Act
(1964) and the Voting Rights Act
(1965).
Media attention gave the march
national exposure, carrying the
organizers‘ speeches and offering
their own commentary.

51. 1964
The U.S. Congress passes and President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the
Omnibus Civil Rights Bill, banning discrimination in voting, jobs, public
accommodation, and other activities.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize, at 35, the youngest
person ever to be awarded the prize. He was assassinated 4 years later.

52. Part VIII:
From Nelson Mandela's
Imprisonment to the Fall of the
Berlin Wall
Human Rights Timeline

54. 1964
Nelson Mandela and seven other leaders of the African National Congress
(ANC) are convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life in prison by the South
African government for protesting the apartheid policies in South Africa.
During his years in
prison, Nelson
Mandela‘s reputation
grew steadily. He was
widely accepted as the
most significant black
leader in South Africa
and became a potent
symbol of resistance as
the anti-apartheid
movement gathered
strength. He
consistently refused to
compromise his
political position to
obtain his freedom.

55. The ANC, the oldest black (now multiracial) political organization in South Africa,
was formed in 1912 in response to the creation of the South African Union which
entrenched white minority rule. The ANC, with its middle-class, professional
leadership and commitment to liberal principles, multiracialism, and non-
violence, had little impact at home or abroad until it expanded its base and
broadened its appeal in the 1940s.
Prominent in its opposition to apartheid, the organization began as a nonviolent
civil-rights group. In the 1940s and 50s it joined with other groups with the
formation of a Congress Alliance, including the Indian Congress, the Coloured
People‘s Congress, and the white Congress of Democrats, influenced by the
recently banned Communist Party. In 1955 the ANC adopted the Freedom
Charter which reaffirmed its commitment to an inclusive form of nationalism,
proclaiming ‗that South Africa belongs to all who live in it‘.
The ANC was banned in 1960 and the following year initiated guerrilla attacks. In
1964 its leader, Nelson Mandela, was sentenced to life in prison, and the
leadership was forced into exile. Although outlawed, the ANC became the
popularly acknowledged vehicle of mass resistance to apartheid in the late
1970s and the 1980s; the training of ANC guerrillas continued in neighboring
countries. Following the end of the ban on the ANC and the release of Mandela
in 1990, many of its leaders returned from exile, and the ANC negotiated with the
government for black enfranchisement and an end to apartheid.

56. 1965
The U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Immigration Act of 1965,
eliminating the ethnic quotas established under the McCarran-Walter
Act of 1952. By equalizing immigration policies, the act resulted in new
immigration from non-European nations which changed the ethnic
make-up of the United States. Immigration doubled between 1965 and
1970, and doubled again between 1970 and 1990. The most dramatic
effect was to shift immigration from Europe to Asia and Central and
South America.
A Boston Globe article attributed Barack Obama‘s win in the 2008 U.S.
Presidential election to a marked reduction over the preceding
decades in the percentage of whites in the American electorate,
attributing this demographic change to the Act. The article quoted
Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of the New Democrat
Network, as having said that the Act is ―the most important piece of
legislation that no one‘s ever heard of,‖ and that it ―set America on a
very different demographic course than the previous 300 years.‖

59. 1966-1976
Mao Zedong begins a ―purification‖ of leftist ideas known as the Cultural
Revolution in China, resulting in a decade of internal unrest and
violence as thousands of Chinese citizens are killed by their own
government.
Mao believed that the progress China had made since 1949 had lead
to a privileged class developing—engineers, scientists, factory managers
etc. Mao also believed that these people were acquiring too much
power at his expense. Mao was concerned that a new class of
mandarins was emerging in China who had no idea about the lifestyle
of the normal person in China.
Red Guards (groups of youths who banded themselves together)
encouraged all the youth in China to criticize those who Mao deemed
untrustworthy with regards to the direction he wanted China to take.
No-one was safe from criticism: writers, economists and anyone
associated with the man Mao considered his main rival—Liu Shao-chi.
Anyone who was deemed to have developed a superior attitude was
considered an enemy of the party and people.

61. Mao deliberately set out to create a cult for himself and to purge the
Chinese Communist Party of anyone who did not fully support Mao.
His main selling point was a desire to create a China which had
peasants, workers and educated people working together—no-one
was better than anyone else and all working for the good of China—
a classless society.
However, the enthusiasm of the Red Guards nearly pushed China
into social turmoil. Schools and colleges were closed and the
economy started to suffer. Groups of Red Guards fought Red Guards
as each separate unit believed that it knew best how China should
proceed. In some areas the activities of the Red Guard got out of
hand. They turned their anger on foreigners and foreign embassies
got attacked. The British Embassy was burned down completely.
Along with Mao‘s Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution is
blamed for costing millions of lives, causing severe famine and
damage to the culture, society and economy of China. Mao‘s
policies and political purges from 1949 to 1976 are widely believed to
have caused the deaths of between 40 to 70 million people.

62. 1966
The UN adopts and opens for signature the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Together
these documents further developed the rights outlined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The UN sets of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, allowing individuals to charge
violations of human rights. It commits its parties to respect the civil
and political rights of individuals, including the right to life,
freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly,
electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial.

64. 1968
The UN adopts the Convention on Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War
Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. The Convention requires that the
contracting states undertake to adopt any and all measures as are necessary to
secure that statutory limitation shall not apply to the imposition of or enforcement
of sentences for: (1) crimes against humanity, as specified in the 1948 UN
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; (2) war
crimes, as specified in the 1949 Geneva Conventions, or any comparable
violations of the laws of war and/or customs of war existing at the time of the
Convention‘s entry into force (in 2003); and (3) any other crimes of a comparable
nature that the contracting states believe may be established as such in future
international law. The Convention stipulates that crimes for which statutory
limitation does not apply should be of a particularly grave character, by virtue of
either their factual elements and premeditated nature or the extent of their
foreseeable consequences (Article 1). The Convention applies to crimes
committed by a state after the document‘s entry into force in that state, as well
as to crimes committed before its entry into force, provided that the statutory
periods of limitation from that time are not yet expired (Article 2).

65. The first World Conference on Human Rights is held in Tehran.
The United Nations convened member states to evaluate the
failures and successes of human rights promotion since the
adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to
work toward the elimination of racial discrimination and
apartheid.
René Cassin wins the Nobel Peace Prize. A French jurist,
humanitarian, and internationalist, Cassin spent his life
defending the rights of men, women, and children and was a
principle drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The US Congress passes the Architectural Barriers Act, requiring
that all facilities supported with federal funding be designed in
such a way as to be fully accessible to individuals with
disabilities.

76. “La guerra sucia,” or the dirty war, refers to an internal war between the Mexican
PRI-ruled government and left-wing student and guerrilla groups in the 1960s and
1970s, largely under the presidencies of Luis Echeverría and José López Portillo.
The war was characterized by a backlash against the active student movement
of the late 1960s which terminated in the Tlatelolco massacre at a 1968 student
rally in Mexico City—a government massacre of student and civilian protesters
and bystanders. The violence occurred 10 days before 1968 Summer Olympics
celebrations in Mexico City.
While at the time, government propaganda and the mainstream media in
Mexico claimed that government forces had been provoked by protesters
shooting at them, government documents that have been made public since
2000 suggest that the snipers had in fact been employed by the government.
Although estimates of the death toll range from thirty to a thousand, with
eyewitnesses reporting hundreds of dead, Kate Doyle, director of the Mexican
Documentation Project for the US National Security Archive, was only able to find
evidence for the death of 44 people.
President Fox appointed Ignacio Carrillo Prieto in 2002 to prosecute those
responsible for ordering the massacre. In 2006, former President Luis Echeverria
was arrested on charges of genocide. However, in March 2009, after a
convoluted appeal process, the genocide charges against Echeverria were
dismissed.

79. 1969
The Stonewall Riots in New York City begin a movement for gay rights Stonewall
Inn(site of Stonewall Riots). The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous,
violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning
hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village
neighborhood of New York City. They are frequently cited as the first instance in
American history when people in the homosexual community fought back
against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and
they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights
movement in the United States and around the world. American gays and
lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s faced a legal system more anti-homosexual than
those of some Warsaw Pact countries.
Within two years of the Stonewall riots there were gay rights groups in every major
American city, as well as Canada, Australia, and Western Europe.
Homosexuality is decriminalized in Canada.
A Committee for Homosexuality is formed in the UK.
The Campaign Against Moral Persecution in founded in Sydney, Australia.

80. 1971
Woman in Switzerland are given the right to vote.

82. 1972-1973
Title IX is passed, guaranteeing that ―No person in the United
States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation
in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination
under any program or activity receiving Federal financial
assistance.‖
The Equal Rights Amendment passes both the House of
Representatives and the Senate but not enough states ratify it
before the seven year deadline for ratification expires.
The UN adopts the International Convention on the Suppression
and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. It defined the crime of
apartheid as ―inhuman acts committed for the purpose of
establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of
persons over any other racial group of persons and
systematically oppressing them.‖

83. The historic Roe v. Wade case is decided in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Along with Doe v. Bolton, this decision legalized abortion in the first trimester of
pregnancy. The decision, written by Justice Harry Blackmun and based on the
residual right of privacy, struck down dozens of state antiabortion statutes. The
decision was based on two cases, that of an unmarried woman from Texas,
where abortion was illegal unless the mother‘s life was at risk, and that of a poor,
married mother of three from Georgia, where state law required permission for
an abortion from a panel of doctors and hospital officials. While establishing the
right to an abortion, this decision gave states the right to intervene in the second
and third trimesters of pregnancy to protect the woman and the ―potential‖ life
of the unborn child.
Denounced by the National Council of
Bishops, the decision gave rise to a vocal
antiabortion movement that put pressure on
the courts and created an anti-Roe litmus
test for the judicial appointments of the
Reagan and Bush administrations (1981–93).
In a 1989 case, Webster v. Reproductive
Health Services, the court, while not striking
down Roe, limited its scope, permitting states
greater latitude in regulating and restricting
abortions. Then in 1992, in Planned
Parenthood v. Casey, the court reaffirmed
the abortion rights granted in Roe v. Wade,
while permitting further restrictions

85. On September 11, a bloody military coup overthrows Chilean President Salvador Allende and a
junta, led by General Augusto Pinochet, takes power. Pinochet quickly dissolves the Congress,
suspends the constitution, criminalizes opposition political parties, and places strict limits on the
media. During his 17-year dictatorship, Pinochet presides over the repression, torture,
disappearance, and death of thousands of Chilean citizens who opposed his rule.
Although the Chilean panel‘s report is not yet widely available, its publication is bound to have
a cathartic impact on a sophisticated society in which many members of the elite refused to
believe that the authorities could perpetrate such horrors.
The report, based on nine months of testimony and research, describes several stages of
repression. In the weeks after the military seized power in a coup Sept. 11, 1973, thousands of
Chileans sympathetic to the socialist government were detained. Many were tortured, and
several hundred were tried and executed by military war tribunals.
A woman described the corpse of her son, the manager of a state cement plant, who turned
himself in after the coup and died in custody five weeks later: ―He was missing one eye, his nose
was torn off, one ear was separated and hanging, there were marks of deep burns on his neck
and face, his mouth was very swollen.‖
In the next stage, the army‘s secret police squads waged a ―systematic campaign to
exterminate‖ leftist dissidents from 1974 to 1977, the report states. Inside clandestine prisons,
people were tortured with electric shocks, choking, confinement and even animal rape. There
were 957 victims who never reappeared and are presumed dead.

87. 1975
The Khmer Rouge take Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. As the leader of
the Communist Party, Saloth Sar was the designated leader of the new
regime. He took the name ―brother number one‖ and declared his nom
de guerre Pol Pot.
Immediately after the fall of Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge began to
implement their concept of Year Zero and ordered the complete
evacuation of Phnom Penh and all other recently captured major towns
and cities. Those leaving were told that the evacuation was due to the
threat of severe American bombing and it would last for no more than a
few days.
Property became collective, and education was dispensed at
communal schools. Children were raised on a communal basis. Even
meals were prepared and eaten communally. Pol Pot‘s regime was
extremely paranoid. Political dissent and opposition were not permitted.
People were treated as opponents based on their appearance or
background. Torture was widespread. In some instances, throats were slit
as prisoners were tied to metal bed frames.

91. Thousands of politicians and bureaucrats accused of association with previous
governments were executed. Phnom Penh was turned into a ghost city, while
people in the countryside were dying of starvation or illnesses or simply killed.
US officials had predicted that more than one million people would be killed by
the Khmer Rouge if they took power, and President Gerald Ford had warned of
―an unbelievable horror story.‖ Different estimates as to the number killed by the
Khmer Rouge regime vary from 750,000 to over three million.
Pol Pot aligned the country politically with the People's Republic of China and
adopted an anti-Soviet line. This alignment was more political and practical
than ideological. Vietnam was aligned with the Soviet Union so Cambodia
aligned with the rival of the Soviet Union and Vietnam in Southeast Asia. China
had been supplying the Khmer Rouge with weapons for years before they took
power.In December 1976, Pol Pot issued directives to the senior leadership to the
effect that Vietnam was now an enemy.
After the Khmer Rouge were driven from power by the Vietnamese in 1979, the
United States and other powers refused to allow the Vietnamese-backed
Cambodian government to take the seat of Cambodia at the United Nations.
The seat, by default, remained in the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

95. What is a genocide?
Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide defines genocide as any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a)Killing members of the group;
(b)Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d)Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article 3 defines the crimes that can be punished under the convention:
(a)Genocide;
(b)Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d)Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.

96. The Final Act of the Conference on Security and and Cooperation
in Europe affirms the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights. The conference establishes an on-going forum for
East-West communication on human rights and humanitarian
issues. This framework for international communication inspires
the creation of many non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
and citizens‖ groups that will help monitor human rights and
demand compliance with standards set by the UN and its
member states.
Cold War détente between the United States and the Soviet
Union originated in the 1960s. President Richard Nixon‘s opening
to China and the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty
(SALT) between the superpowers in 1972 were landmark events in
easing tensions between the West and the communist world.
Chancellor Willy Brandt‘s Ostpolitik and the Conference of
Security and Cooperation in Europe pursued better East-West
relations in Europe.

97. Neutrals like Austria played
an important role in these
negotiations. The Helsinki
Final Act signed on August
1, 1975 by 35 nations
represented the
culmination of détente in
Europe. The signatories for
the first time accepted that
treatment of citizens within
their borders as a matter of
legitimate international
concern. This helped
human rights in the Soviet
sphere of influence and
spawned dissident
organizations like Charta 77
in Prague.

98. Andrei D. Sakharov receives the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for his
work for nuclear disarmament and his outspoken criticism of human
rights violations everywhere. Sakharov was one of the Soviet Union's
leading physicists and is regarded in scientific circles as the ―father of
the Soviet atomic bomb.‖ He also became Soviet Russia's most
prominent political dissident.
In the late 1950s Sakharov sent many letters to Soviet leaders urging
them to stop nuclear testing. He also published several articles in
Soviet journals arguing against continued nuclear testing and the
arms race. His views apparently carried weight with Premier Nikita
Khrushchev (1894–1971) and others, and influenced the Soviet
decision to sign the first nuclear test ban treaty in 1963.
In 1966 and 1967 Sakharov openly pressed for civil liberties. He
became more militant following the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia in 1968. He was for many, inside the Soviet Union and
out, a noble symbol of courage, intelligence, and humanity. Part of
his obituary said, ―Everything [he] did was dictated by his
conscience.‖

99. The UN adopts the Declaration on Rights of Disabled Persons. This
declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly is the first international
document that tried to define the term ―disability.‖ The Declaration
includes a number of social and economic rights as well as civil and
political rights.
Persons with disabilities are entitled to exercise their civil, political, social,
economic and cultural rights on an equal basis with others. Disability
―summarizes a great number of different functional limitations occurring in
any population in any country of the world. People may be disabled by
physical, intellectual or sensory impairment, medical conditions or mental
illness. Such impairments, conditions or illnesses may be permanent or
transitory in nature.‖
The UN estimates that there are 500 million persons with disabilities in the
world today. This number is increasing every year due to factors such as
war and destruction, unhealthy living conditions, or the absence of
knowledge about disability, its causes, prevention and treatment.
Portugal becomes the last major power to relinquish its substantial colonial
holdings in Africa. Many colonies, including Angola, Sao Tome, Cape
Verde and Mozambique were finally freed of colonial rule. However,
Portugal‘s abrupt departure left a power vacuum, which resulted in great
upheaval and poverty in these places.

100. 1977
A human rights bureau is created within the U.S. Department of State. Its first reports
on human rights are issued this year. ―The United States understands that the
existence of human rights helps secure the peace, deter aggression, promote the
rule of law, combat crime and corruption, strengthen democracies, and prevent
humanitarian crises.‖
Amnesty International wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
US President Jimmy Carter begins to institutionalize human rights agendas into
American foreign policy. Throughout his career, Carter strongly emphasized human
rights. His approach was coldly received by the Soviet Union and some other
nations. In the Middle East, through the Camp David agreement of 1978, he helped
bring amity between Egypt and Israel. He succeeded in obtaining ratification of the
Panama Canal treaties. Building upon the work of predecessors, he established full
diplomatic relations with the People‘s Republic of China and completed
negotiation of the SALT II nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union.
After leaving office, he founded The Carter Center, which is committed to to human
rights and the alleviation of human suffering; it seeks to prevent and resolve
conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.

101. 1978
Helsinki Watch was founded to monitor and promote the human rights provisions
of the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Those accords focused primarily on the security and
economic dimensions of East–West Cold War relations, confirming, among other
things, the Soviet Union‘s post–World War II borders. But the agreements also
made economic and security cooperation dependent on the human rights
practices of signatory countries. Activists throughout the Eastern bloc seized on
these provisions to demand greater political freedoms, and established local
committees to fight for government compliance. The groups were harshly
repressed by incumbent Communist regimes. The first arrests of human rights
monitors were carried out by Soviet authorities in early 1977. Helsinki Watch was
organized to campaign. Helsinki Watch merged into Human Right Watch in 1988.
The Camp David Peace Accords help pave the way for more negotiations
between Egypt and Israel and is one of the first steps toward peace between the
Israelis and Palestinians. Signed at the White House by Egyptian President Anwar
El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and witnessed by US
President Jimmy Carter, the Accords resulted in Sadat and Begin sharing the 1978
Nobel Peace Prize.

103. 1979
The UN adopts the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. CEDAW is often
described as an international bill of rights for women. It defines discrimination against
women as ―...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which
has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or
exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men
and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic,
social, cultural, civil or any other field.‖
The Convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men
through ensuring women's equal access to, and equal opportunities in, political and
public life—including the right to vote and to stand for election—as well as education,
health and employment. States parties agree to take all appropriate measures,
including legislation and temporary special measures, so that women can enjoy all
their human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The Convention is the only human rights treaty which affirms the reproductive rights of
women and targets culture and tradition as influential forces shaping gender roles and
family relations. It affirms women's rights to acquire, change or retain their nationality
and the nationality of their children. States parties also agree to take appropriate
measures against all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of women.

104. 1980
The US Supreme Court orders the federal government to pay some $120
million dollars to eight tribes of Sioux Indians in reparation for American
Indian land that the government seized illegally in 1877.

105. 1981
The UN adopts the Declaration on the Elimination of
All Forms of Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief
after nearly 20 years of drafting
The International Labor Organization adopts the
Convention Concerning the Promotion of Collective
Bargaining. Collective bargaining is a process of
voluntary negotiation between employers and trade
unions aimed at reaching agreements which regulate
working conditions. Collective agreements usually set
out wage scales, working hours, training, health and
safety, overtime, grievance, mechanisms and rights to
participate in workplace or company affairs.

106. 1982
The UN adopts the Principles of Medical Ethics.
Principle 1: Health personnel, particularly physicians, charged with the
medical care of prisoners and detainees have a duty to provide them
with protection of their physical and mental health and treatment of
disease of the same quality and standard as is afforded to those who
are not imprisoned or detained.
Principle 2: It is a gross contravention of medical ethics, as well as an
offence under applicable international instruments, for health personnel,
particularly physicians, to engage, actively or passively, in acts which
constitute participation in, complicity in, incitement to or attempts to
commit torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.
Principle 3: It is a contravention of medical ethics for health personnel,
particularly physicians, to be involved in any professional relationship
with prisoners or detainees the purpose of which is not solely to
evaluate, protect or improve their physical and mental health.

109. Principle 4: It is a contravention of medical ethics for health personnel,
particularly physicians: (a) To apply their knowledge and skills in order to
assist in the interrogation of prisoners and detainees in a manner that may
adversely affect the physical or mental health or condition of such
prisoners or detainees and which is not in accordance with the relevant
international instruments; and (b) To certify, or to participate in the
certification of, the fitness of prisoners or detainees for any form of
treatment or punishment that may adversely affect their physical or
mental health and which is not in accordance with the relevant
international instruments, or to participate in any way in the infliction of
any such treatment or punishment which is not in accordance with the
relevant international instruments.
Principle 5: It is a contravention of medical ethics for health personnel,
particularly physicians, to participate in any procedure for restraining a
prisoner or detainee unless such a procedure is determined in
accordance with purely medical criteria as being necessary for the
protection of the physical or mental health or the safety of the prisoner or
detainee himself, of his fellow prisoners or detainees, or of his guardians,
and presents no hazard to his physical or mental health.
Principle 6: There may be no derogation from the foregoing principles on
any ground whatsoever, including public emergency

110. 1984
The UN adopts the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Tutu is a world-
renowned preacher and strident voice against apartheid, first Black
Secretary General of the South African Council of Churches, first Black
Archbishop of the Anglican Church in South Africa, Archbishop Emeritus
of Cape Town, and chair of the South African Truth and Reconciliation
Commission. The award recognised his unifying role in the fight against
apartheid.
There is no peace in Southern Africa. There is no peace because there is
no justice. There can be no real peace and security until there be first
justice enjoyed by all the inhabitants of that beautiful land. The Bible
knows nothing about peace without justice, for that would be crying,
“Peace, peace, where there is no peace.” God’s shalom peace,
involves inevitably righteousness, justice, wholeness, fullness of life,
participation in decision making, goodness, laughter, joy, compassion,
sharing and reconciliation.

111. 1985
The U.S. Senate votes to impose economic sanctions on South
Africa in protest against the government's apartheid policy.
The UN adopts the International Convention against Apartheid in
Sports. Under the Convention, States parties strongly condemn
apartheid and undertake to pursue immediately the elimination
of apartheid in all its forms from sports. They commit themselves
not to permit their sports bodies, teams and individual sportsmen
to have contact with a country practicing apartheid. Regarding
appropriate action against those participating in sports activities
in a country practicing apartheid or with teams representing
such a country, States parties agree to: refuse to provide
financial assistance; restrict access to national sports facilities;
void sports contracts; and withdraw national honors or awards.
They also are to deny visas to sports persons representing a
country practicing apartheid and expel such countries from
international and regional sports bodies.

114. 1989
In Tiananmen Square, Chinese authorities massacre student demonstrators
struggling for democracy. According to an analysis by Nicholas D. Kristof of The
New York Times, ―The true number of deaths will probably never be known, and it
is possible that thousands of people were killed without leaving evidence behind.
But based on the evidence that is now available, it seems plausible that about 50
soldiers and policemen were killed, along with 400 to 800 civilians.‖ Globe and
Mail correspondent Jan Wong placed the death toll at approximately 3,000,
based on initial reports by the Red Cross and analysis on the crowd size, density,
and the volume of firing.
Following the conflict, the government conducted widespread arrests of
protesters and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China,
banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the
events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with
the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under
house arrest, such as General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. There was widespread
international condemnation of the PRC government‘s use of force against the
protesters. Chinese authorities summarily tried and executed many of the workers
they arrested in Beijing. In contrast, the students—many of whom came from
relatively affluent backgrounds and were well-connected—received much
lighter sentences.

116. His Holiness the Dalai Lama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Spiritual and temporal
leader of the Tibetan people, since his first visit to the west in the early 1970s,
His Holiness‘ reputation as a scholar and man of peace has grown steadily. A
number of western universities and institutions have conferred Peace Awards
and honorary Doctorate Degrees upon His Holiness in recognition of his
distinguished writings in Buddhist philosophy and of his distinguished
leadership in the service of freedom and peace.
Today the world is smaller and more
interdependent. One nation’s problems can
no longer be solved by itself completely.
Thus, without a sense of universal
responsibility, our very survival becomes
threatened. Basically, universal responsibility
is feeling for other people's suffering just as
we feel our own. It is the realization that
even our enemy is entirely motivated by the
quest for happiness. We must recognize that
all beings want the same thing that we
want. This is the way to achieve a true
understanding, unfettered by artificial
consideration.

117. The Berlin Wall is dismantled.

119. Part IX:
From Gulf War I
to the 21st Century
Human Rights Timeline

124. 1990-1991
After the UN imposes sanctions on Iraq, the U.S. enters the Gulf War to protect the
sovereignty of Kuwait and to maintain human rights in the area. On July 17, 1990, Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates of flooding the
world oil market. Specifically, he accused Kuwait of stealing oil from a disputed supply,
the Rumaila oil field which ran beneath both countries, and thus waging ―economic
war‖ against Iraq. On August 2, 1990, Iraqi military forces invaded and occupied
Kuwait.
Kuwait requested U.S. military assistance and U.S. involvement in the situation was
immediate. While U.S. military commanders and strategists formulated offensive plans,
the United Nations passed a resolution calling for military action if Hussein did not
withdraw his forces by January 15, 1991.
Iraq ignored all demands, and in response, a coalition of UN forces began
immediately to build in Saudi Arabia. On January 12, Congress granted President Bush
the authority to wage war. Hostilities commenced on January 17, as the 36 members
of the coalition forces, under the direction of American General H. Norman
Schwarzkopf, initiated an air campaign to disable Iraq‘s communications, air defenses,
and early warning radar installations. Millions of Americans were glued to their
television sets as CNN broadcast images of the air attack in Baghdad—the beginning
of the first ―live‖ television war.

125. The resulting coalition campaign, which would come to be known as
Desert Storm, mainly involved Air Force units, with strong support from
the Navy, included strategic aircraft sorties against installations in
Baghdad as well as other military targets. After five weeks of air and
missile combat, ground troops began their campaign in Kuwait. On
February 27, coalition forces entered Kuwait City, forcing Iraq to
concede a cease-fire after only 100 hours.
The United States and the United Nations gave several public
justifications for involvement in the conflict, the most prominent being
the Iraqi violation of Kuwaiti territorial integrity. In addition, the United
States moved to support its ally Saudi Arabia, whose importance in
the region, and as a key supplier of oil, made it of considerable
geopolitical importance.
Other justifications for foreign involvement included Iraq’s history of
human rights abuses under President Saddam. Iraq was also known to
possess biological weapons and chemical weapons, which Saddam
had used against Iranian troops during the Iran-Iraq war and against
his own country‘s Kurdish population in the Al-Anfal Campaign. Iraq
was also known to have a nuclear weapons program.

126. 1990
The Americans With Disabilities Act is signed into law, establishing
―a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the
basis of disability,‖ giving civil rights protections to individuals with
disabilities that are like those provided to individuals on the basis
of race, sex, national origin, and religion. It guarantees equal
opportunity for individuals with disabilities in employment, public
accommodations, transportation, State and local government
services, and telecommunications.
The World Summit for Children of the World adopts the
Declaration on the Survival, Protection, and Development of
Children and the Plan of Action for Implementing the World
Declaration.
After 27 years of imprisonment, Nelson Mandela is released from
prison after President F.W. de Klerk lifts the ban on the ANC and
other anti-apartheid organizations.

127. The UN adopts the International Convention on the Protection of the
Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
In 2005, the number of international migrants was between 185 and
192 million. This represents approximately three percent of the world
population, comparable to the population of Brazil. Nearly all
countries are concerned by migration, whether as sending, transit, or
receiving countries, or as a combination of these. International
migration has become an intrinsic feature of globalization.
The primary objective of the Convention is to foster respect for
migrants‘ human rights. Migrants are not only workers, they are also
human beings. The Convention does not create new rights for
migrants but aims at guaranteeing equality of treatment, and the
same working conditions for migrants and nationals. The Convention
innovates because it relies on the fundamental notion that all
migrants should have access to a minimum degree of protection.
The Convention recognizes that legal migrants have the legitimacy
to claim more rights than undocumented migrants, but it stresses that
undocumented migrants must see their fundamental human rights
respected, like all human beings.

129. All six regions of the world are witnessing intense or growing migratory activities:
Africa. African migrants predominantly move to other African countries, with
Southern Africa, the Maghreb and West Africa being the sub-regions most affected
by labor mobility in Africa.
Asia. Asia is the largest source of temporary contractual migrant workers worldwide,
while simultaneously being characterized by very large intra-regional flows of
migrant workers, particularly the vast internal movements in China and India.
Europe. Europe‘s regional dynamics differs from others because of the European
Union objective of creating a common migratory space within far-flung but jointly
managed external borders.
Americas. Characterized by strong south-north migratory flows from Latin America
and the Caribbean to the United States and Canada, and increasingly Europe. The
United States and Canada continue to be major receivers of permanent migrants
from across the world but are also facing growing demand for temporary workers.
Middle East. The Middle East ranks importantly as a region for temporary contractual
workers, most of whom are from Asia.
Oceania. Oceania includes two large destination countries—Australia and New
Zealand—on the one hand, and on the other, many small island nations whose
populations are increasingly interested in labor migration.