Overview

Drafting and Adoption
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Basis of Human Rights
From the Hammurabi Codes of ancient Babylon to the mandates of the League of Nations, an awareness of human rights slowly emerges.

Cataclysm and World Response
The Nazi Holocaust alters forever popular awareness of human rights abuses and underscores the need for international human rights guarantees.

A Promise to Humanity
The United Nations Charter gives human rights a new international legal status.

Struggle for Recognition
During nearly three years of intensive study, heated debate and delicate negotiation, the community of nations works to define human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Standard of Achievement
The Universal Declaration is adopted as an enduring international commitment to human rights.

Children review the Universal Declaration shortly after its adoption.

Basis of Human Rights

From the Hammurabi Codes of ancient Babylon to the mandates of the League of Nations, an awareness of human rights slowly emerges.

As individual human beings, we each have an innate sense of the fundamental rights and freedoms that belong to us, and that cannot be denied by any government. A basic understanding and recognition of human rights is in our nature. The notion of human rights can be successfully traced through the linguistic, literary, cultural, and political structures of all societies. The world’s major legal systems all bring important contributions to our understanding of human rights as do the most widely practiced religious beliefs, including Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Hindu, Islamic and Jewish traditions.

Attempts to articulate this innate understanding can be traced to ancient laws (such as the Hammurabi Codes of Babylon), to Greco-Roman doctrines and through the work of philosophers and humanists such as St. Thomas Aquinas, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Hugo Grotius, John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau. These philosophers all contributed to the concept of "natural law" which set the stage for wide recognition of human rights and freedoms. Natural law holds that people are born in an innately "good" state, and that certain fundamental rights can be reasonably deduced from this fact.

Although the philosophy of natural law lent much to the conceptual basis for human rights, with time, it became increasingly important to translate vague concepts of rights derived from nature into specific written laws which would provide concrete protection for the rights of the individual within the larger framework of society. Great precedents in the recognition and protection of specific human rights lie in such documents as the British Magna Carta, the United States Bill of Rights, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Other important precedents are found in the anti-slavery movement of the early nineteenth century and in humanitarian laws such as those spelled out in the Geneva Convention of 1864 which protected medical installations and personnel during war, and the Hague Convention of 1899 which established humanitarian rules for naval warfare. The concept of a State’s responsibility to treat foreigners in a just and civil manner also helped advance human rights norms. Yet these emerging international standards did little to stop the inhumanity of World War I with its trench warfare and poison gas. People realized that more had to be done - that an international organization must be created to ensure peace and protect individuals.

Shortly after the end of the First World War, the League of Nations was established. The Covenant of the League created a "Mandates System" that obliged League Members to promote the "well-being and development" of peoples in the territories over which they had jurisdiction. And it called for "fair and human conditions of labour for men, women and children" which lead to the creation in 1920 of the International Labor Organization. The League also attempted a system for protecting the rights of national minorities in certain countries.

These were all important international developments. In fact, many concepts, convictions, events, laws and institutions helped to advance the cause of human rights prior to the 1940s. But appreciation of human rights as the very foundation of a free, just and peaceful world was immature, and commitment was thin. The League of Nations proved an ineffective organization and it soon collapsed, ushering in another world war.

Cataclysm and World Response

The Nazi Holocaust alters forever popular awareness of human rights abuses and underscores the need for international human rights guarantees.

Although the world had made great progress in defining human rights, it was the events of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s that threatened humanity’s most firmly held convictions. By the end of World War II, six million Jews – of whom more than a million were children not yet in their teens -- were killed in Nazi concentration camps, gas chambers and extermination centers. In the middle of the 20th century, at the hands of a technologically advanced, cultured nation-state, the idea of human rights was simply extinguished. In the beginning, the Nazi regime established discriminatory laws controlling who could own property, hold jobs, and go to school; in the end, they smashed dissent, launched a world war and enslaved and murdered millions of civilians.

The results of the Nazi attempt to annihilate all the Jews of Europe and to enslave and destroy millions of others as well -- Poles, gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, the mentally and physically handicapped and political opponents -- had shocked leaders and citizens throughout all cultures and societies of the post-war world. Winston Churchill called the Nazi atrocities a "crime without a name." In the early 1940’s, a Polish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin coined the word "genocide."

The Holocaust altered forever the way in which people considered human rights. Prior to World War II the prevalent attitude had been that the protection of human rights was primarily a domestic concern, that is, a concern of sovereign governments. Efforts to defeat the Axis, however, became for many people synonymous with a struggle to make human rights a universal concern, that is, a concern of all human beings. The world united to defeat fascism and to secure human rights for everyone -- everywhere.

During the war, the momentum toward universal recognition of inalienable human rights was propelled by the Atlantic Charter and by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech before the United States Congress in 1941. In his address, Roosevelt proclaimed four basic freedoms that could never be legitimately abridged; they were freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. In Britain, Prime Minister Winston Churchill echoed the American President, asserting that an Allied victory would be marked by the "enthronement of human rights."

This message was communicated to the people very explicitly in statements like the "United Nations Declaration" and pamphlets like the "United Nations Fight for the Four Freedoms". As the War neared an end, the need to codify human rights was not on the minds of diplomats and leaders alone. After Germany’s unconditional surrender, further information of Nazi atrocities slowly became available. With these horrific revelations the determination to secure enduring respect for human rights became indelibly ingrained in the minds of all peoples.

A Promise to Humanity

The United Nations Charter gives human rights a new international legal status.

The allied countries began planning for peace well before the war was over. An important event in this planning process was a conference held at the Dumbarton Oaks estate outside Washington D.C. in the early fall of 1944. It was at this conference that the Big Four war powers (the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China) met to discuss their proposals about how peace might be maintained in the post-war world. Their ultimate goal was an international organization that would have the power to maintain security and foster prosperity. Because much of the negotiation was driven by other geopolitical concerns, the planning produced only modest commitments to human rights. However, as the Big Four would soon discover, the world expected more.

The existence of the Universal Declaration is due in large part to the determination of non-governmental organizations (along with a number of smaller countries, particularly those from Latin America) that fought vigorously for a strong commitment to human rights in the UN Charter. A Pan-American conference held in Mexico City in February and March of 1945 consolidated Latin American determination to see human rights included in the UN Charter. Over 1,300 American non-governmental organizations joined together in placing newspaper ads calling for human rights to be an integral part of any future international organization. Individually and collectively, these advocates demanded that the United Nations Charter include a clear and substantive commitment to human rights.

When representatives from forty-six nations gathered in San Francisco on April 25, 1945 to form the United Nations, they brought with them a hatred of war combined with a spirit of respect for human dignity and worth. Still, their work threatened to fall short of the concrete protections that people sought. It was the concerted pressure from forty-two American organizations acting as consultants to the U.S. delegation that eventually convinced participating governments of the need to provide clear protection for individual human rights.

It was within the context of World War II and in the presence of these advocates of the people that the United Nations Charter was written. And, it was at this 1945 "Conference on International Organization", that the governments of the world legally committed themselves to promote and encourage respect for the inalienable human rights that belong to every man, woman and child. While many advocates had wanted to see a specific "bill of rights" included in the UN Charter, overall, human rights advocates were pleased with the initial commitments made, for they confirmed the United Nations’ intent to preserve human rights both in principle and in practice.

The UN Charter gave human rights a new international legal status. It mentioned human rights five times, first in the Preamble, which identifies human rights as one of the four founding purposes of the United Nations. The Charter’s first article declares that UN member states must work to "achieve international cooperation . . . in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion." Article 55 states the UN will promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms," and Article 56 states that members "pledge themselves to take joint and separate action" to achieve that respect.

The UN Charter also takes the first important steps toward implementing genuine protection of human rights. Article 68 mandated that the UN Economic and Social Council setup a commission "for the promotion of human rights" - this is the only such subsidiary body specifically mentioned in the Charter. This newly created "Commission on Human Rights" would spend the first three years following adoption of the UN Charter drafting the Universal Declaration.

Struggle for Recognition

During nearly three years of intensive study, heated debate and delicate negotiation, the community of nations works to define human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In treating the individual human being as a subject of international law, the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals did much to prepare the intellectual climate for the Universal Declaration. People had begun thinking in new ways. Early on, a number of U.S. based citizen groups submitted drafts for an international bill of rights. These including the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace, American Jewish Committee, American Federation of Labor, American Association of the United Nations, Federal Council of Churches, American Bar Association and Women’s Trade Union League. Private citizens from nine different countries offered their own draft versions.

Drafts submitted by international non-governmental organizations came from the Inter-American Bar Association and the International League for the Rights of Man among others. The American Law Institute submitted a draft prepared at an international conference of non-governmental organizations. It was this draft, subsequently introduced by the Panamanian delegation at the first session of the UN General Assembly, which officially put drafting an international bill of rights on the UN’s agenda. But in order to fulfill the mandate driven by the will of the people and explicitly spelled out in the UN Charter, the United Nations first needed to organize its human rights decision-making machinery.

Based on the recommendations of a "nuclear commission" chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, the UN’s Economic and Social Council established the official UN Commission on Human Rights in June 1946. The Council selected eighteen members to sit on the Commission. U.S. Delegate Eleanor Roosevelt was elected Chairperson, China’s P.C. Chang and France’s René Cassin were elected as Vice-Chairmen and Lebanon’s Charles Malik as Rapporteur. The UN Secretariat supported the Commission’s work under the direction of John P. Humphrey, Director of the UN’s Human Rights Division, who prepared a 408-page documented outline to help the Commission with its work. The principal task of the Commission was to define which rights should be enumerated, and to determine the nature of the document they were to design.

The delegates to the Commission embarked on an arduous journey that lasted almost three years. Their work involved thousands of hours of intensive study, heated debate, and delicate negotiation that centered on innumerable recommendations from many sources, public and private. The men and women of the Commission on Human Rights strove to forge a declaration that might successfully encompass the hopes, beliefs and aspirations of people throughout the world. Their meetings were guided by a spirit of optimism and informed by a clear recognition of the work’s gravity.

The efforts of the Commission on Human Rights would prove unrivaled in world history. Although attempts to describe the rights of men and women had been previously undertaken, the outcome had only applied to members of a particular society. Never before had the community of nations successfully identified those rights and freedoms to be enjoyed by all people of the earth, for all time.

The Commission on Human Rights’ first meetings occurred over a two-week period, between January 27 and February 10, 1947. The Commission decided to form a smaller drafting group, composed of Roosevelt (U.S.), Chang (China), Malik (Lebanon) and John Humphrey, who represented the UN Secretariat, as well as representatives from Australia, Chile, France, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian SSR, the United Kingdom, Uruguay and Yugoslavia. These delegates were charged with creating the draft of an International Bill of Rights.

The first meeting of this smaller drafting committee took place on June 9, 1947 in Lake Success, N.Y. Their primary task was to contemplate a 408 page outline of human rights that had been prepared by the UN Secretariat. The outline included blueprints presented by the governments of Chile, Cuba, Panama, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as elements drawn from the constitutions of fifty-five nations. Recommendations from various non-governmental human rights organizations and from private citizens were also considered.

Before composing a document, the drafting committee had to address the legal nature of the proposed bill. Certain nations, including the United States (wanting to avoid the Senate ratification needed for U.S. endorsement of any international treaty) favored a morally persuasive declaration. Other countries preferred a legally binding treaty. It was Eleanor Roosevelt’s political pragmatism that prevailed in the final decision to draft both. As it turned out, however, most of the time was spent considering the idea of a declaration. René Cassin was chosen to compose a draft declaration based upon the Secretariat’s outline. This paper became the working draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Commission on Human Rights met again from 2 to 17 December 1947. Although there was still discussion of a binding treaty, negotiations focused on the declaration. At the end of the two weeks, a draft declaration had been completed to the satisfaction of a majority of the representatives and was forwarded to the member states of the United Nations for comment.

With the initial responses of governments on hand, the smaller drafting committee went back to work in May of 1948. At the end of May, they reintroduced a revised draft at the next meeting of the full Commission. After another re-draft, on June 18, 1948, the Commission on Human Rights finished its work and passed its report along with the proposed declaration to the UN’s Economic and Social Council. After inviting yet further comment from member states, the Council sent the draft declaration to the General Assembly for consideration. A number of non-governmental organizations had attended the preparatory sessions; Mrs. Roosevelt later commended them for their helpful suggestions.

But the debate did not end here. The General Assembly’s Third Committee held a total of 81 meetings and considered 168 formal resolution on the declaration. The Third Committee first held a general debate and then turned to a detailed debate of every article. They studied the order of the articles and created a sub-committee to make sure that the meaning of each and every word was clearly translatable into all the official languages of the United Nations. On December 6, the Third Committee adopted the declaration and sent it to the full General Assembly for final consideration before the community of nations and the world.

Standard of Achievement

The Universal Declaration is adopted as an enduring international commitment to human rights.

Through their difficult work, the framers of the Universal Declaration concluded, "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." And they affirmed that "it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law."

In the General Assembly, a final, heroic debate lasted until late in the evening of December 10, 1948. Then the President of the General Assembly called for a vote of the member states of the United Nations for the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Forty-eight nations voted for the Declaration, eight countries abstained (the Soviet bloc countries, South Africa and Saudi Arabia) and two countries were absent -- the community of nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights without dissent. It was deemed "an historic act, destined to consolidate world peace through the contribution of the United Nations toward the liberation of individuals from the unjustified oppression and constraint to which they are too often subjected."

That the Declaration was adopted without dissent is a testament to the prudent consideration and hard work of the Commission on Human Rights, the delegates to the Commission, the staff of the UN Secretariat and the Commission’s Chairperson -- Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Roosevelt had done much during the war and throughout the three year drafting process to communicate the expectations of the average man and women to the world’s leaders. She made it known that the people of the world both expected and deserved an enduring international commitment to human rights, and she called on the nations of the world to rise above any misgivings that might be driven by their own narrow national interests.

The emotionally and intellectually taxing responsibility of formulating the document had finally been completed, almost three years after it had begun. Prior to the Universal Declaration there had never existed such a powerful, unequivocal instrument for the promotion and protection of human rights and freedoms. A promise had been made that could never be broken. As stated in the Universal Declaration’s Preamble, the member states of the United Nations were henceforth pledged to "achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms."

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has proven to be, as Mrs. Roosevelt called it, a "living document" in that it has only grown in stature and respect over the past fifty years. What began as an articulation of shared values bearing moral weight on UN Member states, has become a primary building block of customary international law that demands respect from the entire world community. Direct reference to the Universal Declaration is made in the national constitutions of numerous countries. Human rights advocates worldwide invoke its principles.

The Universal Declaration led to the eventual adoption of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and many other legally binding international human rights treaties. It represents at once humanity’s minimal expectations and greatest hopes. Despite challenges, the Universal Declaration continues to affirm the inherent human dignity and worth of every person in the world.

The Universal Declaration is the primary international articulation of the fundamental and inalienable rights of all members of the human family. Throughout history, men, women and children have given their lives in a long struggle to see these rights and freedoms fully recognized and respected. In that long struggle, the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights represents one of humanity’s greatest achievements.