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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 2002) is an important ethical framework for political actions. In this declaration, & in the subsequent International Covenants (United Nations, 2002), 2 major classes of human rights are distinguished, one consisting of civil & political rights, & the other consisting of economic, social, & cultural rights. The Universal Declaration itself & the UN Decade for Human Rights Education emphasize the relevance of an adequate knowledge about human rights in the population. Accordingly, this article represents the results of 2 representative studies on human rights in Germany. The major results of these studies are that knowledge about human rights & about human rights documents is quite low. Also, economic, social, & cultural rights are less known, & are evaluated as less important, than civil & political rights. Thus, the idea of the indivisibility of human rights is not realized. Relating to the commitment to human rights, about 1% of the population might be labeled as core activists. However, large interindividual differences concerning the commitment to human rights were observed. These differences can be explained in part by knowledge about human rights & by the importance of human rights. Right-wing authoritarianism & social dominance orientation show only inconsistent results. Additionally, some relevant differences between East Germans & West Germans were found. East Germans showed greater knowledge about, & somewhat higher appreciation of economic human rights, especially concerning the right to work. Altogether, the results emphasize the importance of a more extensive human rights education. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

Klappentext: Die Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten im Jahr 1990 hat deutliche Spuren in der Gesellschaft und der individuellen Psyche der Deutschen hinterlassen. Nach wie vor existieren viele ökonomische, politische und psychologische Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschen. Die Autorinnen und Autoren geben anhand zentraler Forschungsergebnisse der letzten 30 Jahre einen breiten Überblick zu relevanten Themen des Vereinigungs- und Transformationsprozesses. Betrachtet werden unter anderem die Unterschiede in Familien- und Rollenleitbildern, der Einfluss unterschiedlicher Sozialisationsrahmen in der Kindheit sowie Gerechtigkeitsaspekte im Vereinigungsprozess.