← Unit 2: Movements in the modern world
How did the global human rights movement develop after 1945?
The development of the global human rights movement, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Helsinki Accords (1975), Amnesty International (founded 1961), Human Rights Watch (1978), and contemporary international criminal justice institutions
A focused answer to the QCE Modern History Unit 2 dot point on the global human rights movement. UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), International Bill of Rights (1966 covenants), Helsinki Accords (1975), founding of Amnesty International (1961) and Human Rights Watch (1978), the Rome Statute and International Criminal Court (1998-2002), and Australian human rights institutions.
Have a quick question? Jump to the Q&A page
What this dot point is asking
QCAA wants Year 11 students to understand the post-1945 human rights movement as a distinctive international development, identify its foundational texts (UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR), and trace the rise of the human rights NGO sector and modern international criminal justice.
Pre-1945 context
Before 1945, international law concerned itself with the rights of states, not the rights of individuals. The Holocaust and the wider Nazi crimes against humanity (uncovered as Allied forces liberated camps in 1944-1945) created a moral and political demand for an international framework that protected individuals against their own states.
United Nations and the UDHR (1945-1948)
UN Charter (signed 26 June 1945). Affirmed "fundamental human rights" but did not enumerate them.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 1948). Drafted by the UN Commission on Human Rights under Eleanor Roosevelt. vote. The Soviet bloc and Saudi Arabia abstained.
The UDHR is a General Assembly resolution, not a treaty, and is not directly legally binding. Its significance is rather as the universal moral standard that shaped subsequent binding instruments.
The International Bill of Rights (1966)
The UDHR was supplemented by two binding covenants in 1966:
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966; in force 1976). Free expression, free assembly, fair trial, freedom from torture and arbitrary detention.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966; in force 1976). Right to work, health, education, social security, culture.
Together with the UDHR these form the International Bill of Rights.
Australia is party to both covenants. Subsequent UN treaties to which Australia is party include:
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965).
- Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (1979, "CEDAW").
- Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
- Convention against Torture (1984).
Regional human rights systems
European Convention on Human Rights (1950). Council of Europe instrument. Created the European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg). The most developed regional human rights system.
American Convention on Human Rights (1969). Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (1981). African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.
Helsinki Accords (1975)
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, Helsinki, August 1975). Final Act signed by states including the USSR. Basket III committed signatories to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Helsinki Watch (later Human Rights Watch) and the Moscow Helsinki Group (1976) used the Soviet signature to publicly monitor compliance. Helsinki was an unintentional catalyst for Eastern European dissent (Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, Solidarity in Poland).
Human rights NGOs
Amnesty International (founded 1961). British lawyer Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" (Observer, 28 May 1961) launched the movement. Initial focus on prisoners of conscience. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1977).
Human Rights Watch (founded 1978). Originally Helsinki Watch, founded to monitor Helsinki Accord compliance. Expanded globally in the 1980s and 1990s.
Médecins Sans Frontières (founded 1971). Médical and human-rights advocacy in conflict zones.
These NGOs developed standard methodology (rigorous fact-finding, naming and shaming, advocacy with governments) that became the template for human rights work.
International criminal justice
Nuremberg and Tokyo trials (1945-1948). Post-WWII trials of major war criminals.
ICTY (1993) and ICTR (1994). UN ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Tried major war criminals; established jurisprudence on rape as a war crime, genocide, and command responsibility.
Rome Statute (1998). vote at the Rome Conference. Established the International Criminal Court (ICC). Entered into force 1 July 2002. As of the 2020s, states are party. The United States, China, India, Russia and Israel are not.
The ICC has prosecuted situations in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur, Kenya, Libya, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Georgia, Burundi, Bangladesh/Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Palestine.
Australian human rights framework
Australia has international human rights obligations through treaty ratification but no Commonwealth Human Rights Act or constitutional bill of rights. Australian Human Rights Commission (established 1986 as HREOC) administers federal anti-discrimination law. Victoria (Charter 2006), the ACT (Human Rights Act 2004) and Queensland (Human Rights Act 2019) have state-level rights statutes.
Limits and critique
The global human rights movement is criticised on several grounds:
- Selectivity: Western governments emphasise civil-political rights over economic-social rights.
- Sovereignty: states often resist external monitoring (China, Russia).
- Implementation: even where treaties are ratified, domestic enforcement varies.
- The ICC has been criticised for focusing disproportionately on African situations (though most ICC cases reflect African state self-referrals).
Historiography
Samuel Moyn (The Last Utopia, 2010). Argued that "human rights" as a global mass movement is a phenomenon mainly of the 1970s, not 1948.
Lynn Hunt (Inventing Human Rights, 2007). Traced longer roots to the Enlightenment.
Geoffrey Robertson (Crimes Against Humanity, 1999). Standard practitioner account.
In one sentence
The global human rights movement after 1945 institutionalised the moral response to the Holocaust through the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the binding ICCPR and ICESCR (1966), the Helsinki Accords (1975), and the NGO infrastructure of Amnesty International (1961) and Human Rights Watch (1978); modern international criminal justice (ICTY 1993, ICC 1998) extended this framework into the prosecution of mass atrocity.
Past exam questions, worked
Real questions from past QCAA papers on this dot point, with our answer explainer.
Year 11 class taskEvaluate the significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) for the development of the global human rights movement.Show worked answer →
A Year 11 response.
Thesis. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, was a foundational text for the modern human rights movement, providing a shared international vocabulary, a standard against which states could be measured, and the framework for later binding treaties, even though it was not itself legally binding.
Body 1: The drafting and adoption. The Commission on Human Rights, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, included representatives from diverse legal and political traditions: René Cassin (France), Charles Malik (Lebanon), Peng-chun Chang (Republic of China), Hansa Mehta (India). The Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly with abstentions (USSR, Soviet bloc, Saudi Arabia, South Africa).
Body 2: Content. Thirty articles covering civil and political rights (life, liberty, due process, free expression), economic, social and cultural rights (work, health, education, social security), and rights of family and community. Provided a common standard for all peoples and nations.
Body 3: Long-term significance. The UDHR informed the European Convention on Human Rights (1950), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), and dozens of regional and topic-specific human rights instruments. NGOs (Amnesty 1961, HRW 1978) used the UDHR as their reference point. Domestic constitutional documents in many states drew on it.
Conclusion. The UDHR was not law and could not by itself prevent abuses, but it established a permanent international framework that has shaped post-1948 international politics in ways that pre-1945 international law did not.
Markers reward the date (10 December 1948), the vote breakdown, named drafters (Roosevelt, Cassin, Malik, Mehta), and the link to later binding treaties.
Related dot points
- The postwar world order from 1945, including the United Nations, the Cold War, decolonisation, and the major shifts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries
A focused answer to the QCE Modern History Unit 2 subject-matter point on the postwar world order. UN foundation (1945), Cold War 1945-1991, decolonisation, the end of the Cold War (1989-1991), and the early 21st century (9/11, GFC, rise of China).
- Movements for civil and political rights in the 20th century, including the US Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968), second-wave feminism, anti-apartheid movement, and Indigenous rights movements
A focused answer to the QCE Modern History Unit 2 subject-matter point on rights movements. US Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968), second-wave feminism (1960s-1970s), anti-apartheid movement (1948-1994), and Indigenous rights movements in Australia (1967 referendum, Mabo 1992).
- The United States Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968, including Brown v Board of Education (1954), the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956), the Civil Rights Act (1964), Voting Rights Act (1965), the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr, and the contesting visions of Black Power
A focused answer to the QCE Modern History Unit 2 dot point on the US Civil Rights Movement. Brown v Board of Education (1954), Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956), Greensboro sit-ins (1960), Birmingham campaign (1963), March on Washington (1963), the Civil Rights Act (1964), Voting Rights Act (1965), Selma (1965), and the rise of Black Power and the Black Panthers.