Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Simplified Version
This simplified version of the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been created especially for young people. Each right is linked to a video and definition.

1. We Are All Born Free & Equal. We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated in the same way.

2. Don’t Discriminate. These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences.

3. The Right to Life. We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.

4. No Slavery. Nobody has any right to make us a slave. We cannot make anyone our slave.

5. No Torture. Nobody has any right to hurt us or to torture us.

6. You Have Rights No Matter Where You Go. I am a person just like you!

7. We’re All Equal Before the Law. The law is the same for everyone. It must treat us all fairly.

8. Your Human Rights Are Protected by Law. We can all ask for the law to help us when we are not treated fairly.

9. No Unfair Detainment. Nobody has the right to put us in prison without good reason and keep us there, or to send us away from our country.

10. The Right to Trial. If we are put on trial this should be in public. The people who try us should not let anyone tell them what to do.

11. We’re Always Innocent Till Proven Guilty. Nobody should be blamed for doing something until it is proven. When people say we did a bad thing we have the right to show it is not true.

12. The Right to Privacy. Nobody should try to harm our good name. Nobody has the right to come into our home, open our letters, or bother us or our family without a good reason.

13. Freedom to Move. We all have the right to go where we want in our own country and to travel as we wish.

14. The Right to Seek a Safe Place to Live. If we are frightened of being badly treated in our own country, we all have the right to run away to another country to be safe.

15. Right to a Nationality. We all have the right to belong to a country.

16. Marriage and Family. Every grown-up has the right to marry and have a family if they want to. Men and women have the same rights when they are married, and when they are separated.

17. The Right to Your Own Things. Everyone has the right to own things or share them. Nobody should take our things from us without a good reason.

18. Freedom of Thought. We all have the right to believe in what we want to believe, to have a religion, or to change it if we want.

19. Freedom of Expression. We all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share our ideas with other people.

20. The Right to Public Assembly. We all have the right to meet our friends and to work together in peace to defend our rights. Nobody can make us join a group if we don’t want to.

21. The Right to Democracy. We all have the right to take part in the government of our country. Every grown-up should be allowed to choose their own leaders.

22. Social Security. We all have the right to affordable housing, medicine, education, and childcare, enough money to live on and medical help if we are ill or old.

23. Workers’ Rights. Every grown-up has the right to do a job, to a fair wage for their work, and to join a trade union.

24. The Right to Play. We all have the right to rest from work and to relax.

25. Food and Shelter for All. We all have the right to a good life. Mothers and children, people who are old, unemployed or disabled, and all people have the right to be cared for.

26. The Right to Education. Education is a right. Primary school should be free. We should learn about the United Nations and how to get on with others. Our parents can choose what we learn.

27. Copyright. Copyright is a special law that protects one’s own artistic creations and writings; others cannot make copies without permission. We all have the right to our own way of life and to enjoy the good things that art, science and learning bring.

28. A Fair and Free World. There must be proper order so we can all enjoy rights and freedoms in our own country and all over the world.

29. Responsibility. We have a duty to other people, and we should protect their rights and freedoms. 

30. No One Can Take Away Your Human Rights.

You Be the Judge

This interactive threaded storybook teaches core democratic values such as Pursuit of Happiness, Private Property Rights, and other Constitutional Rights. Help decide how best to keep a treasured tree that is in danger of being cut down. You can make several decisions throughout the story which will effect the final outcome.

You Be the Judge

American Identity

Summer Word Origins

Summer is the warmest season of the year and starts at the summer solstice and runs till the autumnal equinox. The word summer derives from Old Norse sumar, but ultimately is from Proto-Germanic. By the late 1500s to early 1600s, it locked into its current spelling. The term midsummer actually refers to the day of the summer solstice as well as the "middle of summer." Its formation was patterned on words like midday, midnight, andmidwinter.

Bonfire comes from the words bone and fire, referring to an open-air burning of bones or funeral pyre. The Oxford English Dictionary describes the use in Scotland of the formbane-fire and also to the annual midsummer banefire or bonfire in the burgh of Hawick, for which bones were collected and stored regularly until around 1800. Lighting bonfires was one of the most universal of ancient midsummer rites and one that still survives in some northern European countries. The solstice bonfires were believed to prevent cattle disease and were also associated with human courtship and fertility.

The phrase dog days is said to have originated in Roman times as canicularis dies, 'days of the dog,' referring to the dog star Sirius or Procyon. The Romans thought the rising of the most brilliant star of the constellation Canis Major contributed to the heat of summer.

The word humidity is from Latin humidus, from humere 'to be moist.' Humidity was found in English c 1400.

The solstice is one of the two times of year when the Sun's apparent path is farthest north or south from the Earth's equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solsticeis on June 21 or 22, the longest day of the year. The situation is exactly the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where the summer solstice is on December 21 or 22. The wordsolstice is from Latin solstitium, from sol 'sun' and sistere 'to stand still,' as it is regarded as a point at which the Sun seems to stand still. The word was first used in English around 1250.

Though modern observances of the summer solstice are rare, there were celebrations in ancient times in Europe, the British Isles, China, Egypt, North Africa, and Scandinavia. These include the celebration in ancient Egypt at the Temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak, starting around 3700 B.C.E., where a beam of light would illuminate a sanctuary in the temple's interior for about two or three minutes on the day of the solstice. A similar phenomenon was observed at Stonehenge in southwest England. If one stands at the center of the monument and faces northeast along its axis, the 35-ton Heel Stone appears 256 feet away, marking the approximate place on the horizon where the sun rises on the summer solstice. Astronomers have discovered at least two dozen other solar and lunar alignments that the ancient builders of Stonehenge incorporated into its structure.

Vacation is a word coming from Latin vacation/vacatio, from vacare 'to be free, empty; to be at leisure.' Around 1395, this term entered Old English, meaning 'rest and freedom from any activity.'

(from dictionry.reference.com)

Fourth of July Word Origins

Independence Day or Fourth of July is the annual celebration of the United States' "birthday," the date of the passage of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The first celebrations included bell ringing, bonfires, processions, and speeches. In some towns, these celebrations also had a mock funeral for the king, symbolizing the end of America's rule by the British monarchy. It was not until 1941, however, that Congress officially established the Fourth of July as a legal holiday. The date could easily have been July 2, the day on which the Continental Congress approved a resolution for independence, or August 2, the day on which the members of Congress actually signed the document. But it was on July 4 that the final text of the Declaration, which had been drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was ratified. By 1788, the Fourth of July also commemorated the U.S. Constitution as well, which had recently been approved by ten states.

Feasting has always been part of Fourth of July celebrations. In the beginning there were banquets, but this has evolved into outdoor barbecues and picnics. Barbecue was originally a word for a wooden framework for sleeping or for drying or storing meat or fish. The word derives from Arawak or Haitian or Taina barbacoa and became Spanishbarbacoa, "wooden frame on posts" or "framework for meat over fire." Barbeque is the variant spelling. In English, the word's first meanings were the framework and the animal roasted on it; the usage of "social entertainment" is not recorded until 1733. Picnic is from French pique-nique, but that word's origin is unknown. Picnics started out as social occasions (the word first recorded in English in 1748) to which each participant brought comestibles.

The bald eagle (also called the American or white-headed eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is the national bird of the United States and one of the largest birds in the world. "Bald" in this instance means "white," not "hairless." Eagle comes from the Latin word aquila, "black eagle," from aquilus, "dark-colored," which it is until it gets the white head plumage as an adult. The eagle has been a symbol of freedom and liberty and power since ancient times. Some people, like Benjamin Franklin, did not agree that the eagle was an appropriate symbol. Franklin thought the turkey was a better choice for the national bird.

The term for a combustible or explosive or pyrotechnic ("pertaining to fire art") projectile was "rocket" until fireworks was used in 1777 to describe these in connection with the first Fourth of July celebration. "Rockets" are still the most popular form of firework. Rockets are lifted by recoil from the jet of fire created by the burning ingredients — and they are designed for maximum combustion and maximum thrust. Fireworks originated in ancient China. The word firecracker refers to those that make loud sounds and sparklers are those that send off a shower of sparks. The very first Fourth of July celebrations in 1777 included fireworks as a part of the festivities.

A flag as a piece of cloth used as a standard, signal, or symbol in English dates to the late 15th century. The word may be an onomatopoeic representation for such a cloth flapping in the wind, but the origin remains obscured. As far as the American flag goes, there are many theories about its origin, with the story of Betsy Ross being the most famous.

The first Fourth of July parade took place on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. when President John Quincy Adams led a boat procession up the river. Parade comes from a French word meaning "a showing" or "action of stopping a horse," originating from Latinparare, "to prepare."

(from dictionary.reference.com)