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Unit 8—Handout 3
Universe of Obligation
In 1945, the horrors of World War II, including the Japanese atrocities in Asia-Pacifi c, the new and
frightening power of the atomic bomb, and the Nazi genocide of Jews and of others deemed unworthy to
live shocked the consciences of people all over the world. As First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said, “In the end
. . . we are ‘One World’ and that which injures any one of us, injures all of us.” After the war, diplomats and
politicians created not only the United Nations as an international organization, but also the Nuremberg
Trials, the International Military Tribunal Far East (IMTFE), the Genocide Convention, and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in the hope of preventing future atrocities. Each of these initiatives aimed
to redefi ne the responsibilities of all governments and individuals toward other people in the world; they
required a shift in the way people and nations understand what sociologist Helen Fein calls their “universe
of obligation.” Fein defi nes this important concept as the circle of individuals and groups “toward
whom obligations are owed, to whom rules apply, and whose injuries call for [amends].” Her ideas
refer specifi cally to how nations perceive their responsibilities to citizens.
Like nations, individuals develop their own universes of obligation and responsibility.
Questions for Discussion
1. Who is in your “universe of responsibility?”
2. What individuals and groups might you include?
3. Where would your universe of obligation begin? Where might it end?
4. Under what conditions might your universe of responsibility shift?
5. In whose universe of responsibility do you reside?
6. How do individuals, groups, and nations demonstrate their universes of obligation or responsibility?
7. In these conversations, consider the following: What is the difference between a right and a
responsibility?
8. To what extent is there a difference between a nation’s “universe of obligation” and that of individuals
and groups?
Source: Facing History and Ourselves. http://www.facinghistory.org/resources/lesson_ideas/udhr-2universe-obligation-0
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