Human rights' are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world and are based on fundamental principles like respect, equality, dignity, autonomy and fairness.

Such rights are relevant to your day-to-day life and give you freedom to control your own life. They allow you to participate in decisions made by public authorities which impact upon your rights. Public authorities should provide you with fair and equal services.

The concepts of human rights have evolved over many centuries, but it was the events of World War II, in particular the Holocaust, which created the international impetus for action. We consider how small actions can lead on to major issues in The road to prejudice.

In order to protect future generations from a repeat of the horrific events of the last war, the newly established United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. For the first time, the Universal Declaration set out the fundamental rights and freedoms to be shared by all human beings. We cover the activities of the United Nations and the European and national bodies in our section on Worldwide information.

In many countries of the world it has become mandatory to include within the school curriculum the teaching of human rights and very often that will include the events of the Holocaust. It is not particularly easy subject for a teacher to cover as it has to achieve a number of purposes. It should:

• advance knowledge about this unprecedented destruction of human life
• preserve the memory of those who suffered
• encourage students to reflect upon the moral and spiritual questions raised by the events of the Holocaust and how they apply in today's world.

Asociatia Tikvah has brought together in Teacher resources some of the best examples of teaching materials from around the world. We also developed our own lesson plans for Romanian teachers.