What are the differences between individual and minority rights? How did the League of Nations and United Nations attempt to address the topic of human rights? Right now, we define human rights as the rights to which all people are inherently entitled to as a result of being a human being. From the creation of the League of Nations in 1920 it’s been accepted that everyone should be protected under a set of natural or legal laws, but how has the definition of these rights changed since they were first conceived? This audio collection examines the role the League of Nations and United Nations played in the implementation of this idea and both the pros and cons of assigning rights to individuals and to groups.

This material forms part of the Open University course ‘A327 Europe 1914-1989 War, Peace Modernity’

James Walvin, Professor of History at the University of York, outlines the story of the abolition of the slave trade.

In business there are victors and there are losers. Leslie Budd looks at the impact of creativity and innovation on Intellectual Property, and the rise of the business superstar

This free course, Nature matters: caring and accountability, considers environmental responsibility and what may matter from a caring perspective and an accountability perspective. Caring for an environment compromising the natural world and ensuring accountability for harm or wrong done to the environment.

The Republic of Uzupis - home of the free spirit, but not for long.

In Thailand, the international media is the battleground for political ideas. Protests have become increasingly dramatic and well organised. In October 2008, Red-shirts, in their thousands, donated their own blood and poured it on the walls and under the gates of Government House while Yellow-shirted protesters staged a sit - in at Bangkok airport stranding thousands of tourists and bringing Thailand’s political turmoil to television screens around the world. But behind the arresting symbolism of these protests, issues of democracy, welfare, education and human rights are at stake, in a political crisis that is not going to go away.

What is the role of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the nature of its relationship with the UK Government? What impact does it have on UK law?
With British membership of the European Union at the heart of the political agenda, the role of its Court of Human Rights and its influence on UK law has inevitably come under scrutiny. The coalition Government has pledged to withdraw the UK from the European convention of human rights, and to give Parliament the right to veto ECHR rulings. In these 4 films we hear from people who have taken cases to the Strasbourg court. We look at how cases are referred, what laws are used, what the process is like and what impact its judgments have had in the UK - in such high profile examples as Diane Pretty’s ‘Right to Die’ case.