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Lesson

United Nations

Guiding question

What are the goals of the United Nations, and how is the organization structured to reach those goals?

Duration
105 min
Published
Nov 5, 2020
A row of international flags lined along a pathway leading to a building under a blue sky.
As World War II raged, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Tehran Conference in 1943. At this war strategy meeting, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill decided—among many other things—that a new body should be formed to replace the League of Nations and that the United States would be a part of the new body. In 1945, representatives from fifty nations met in San Francisco to write a charter for the new organization, the United Nations (UN).

Guiding Questions

  • What are the goals of the United Nations, and how is the organization structured to reach those goals?
  • How is the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights similar to and different from the U.S. Founding documents?

Objectives

  • Compare the League of Nations with the United Nations.
  • List some of the international challenges of the 1930s and 1940s.
  • Compare the U.S. Founding Documents with the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights with respect to specific rights asserted.

Materials

Student Handouts

Lesson Components

ActivityHandout A: Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1
ActivityHandout A: Universal Declaration of Human Rights 2
ActivityHandout B: Excerpts, United States Declaration of Independence (1776)
ActivityHandout C: Excerpts, United States Constitution (1787)
ActivityHandout D: United States Constitution, Amendments 1-27
ActivityHandout E: Comparing the UDHR with U.S. Founding Documents
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Lesson plan

105 minClick a phase to open it

Key Terms

Adolph Hitler
Joseph Stalin
League of Nations
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston Churchill

Standards

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Related materials

A row of international flags lined along a pathway leading to a building under a blue sky.
EssayUnited Nations

As World War II raged, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Tehran Conference in 1943. At this war strategy meeting, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill decided—among many other things—that a new body should be formed to replace the League of Nations and that the United States would be a part of the new body. In 1945, representatives from fifty nations met in San Francisco to write a charter for the new organization, the United Nations (UN).