2 February 2024
The seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 2023 was an opportunity to re-examine the work of Eleanor Roosevelt and her colleagues in the United Nations as they delivered to the world this historical document it so desperately needed. At the UN Chronicle, we wondered whether our magazine had dedicated coverage to the negotiation and drafting of the Declaration. In consulting our earliest editions, we were delighted to find step-by-step reporting of its elaboration, including several submissions by Eleanor Roosevelt herself.
In August 1946, the second-ever edition of this magazine—then called the United Nations Weekly Bulletin—ran an article entitled “Evolution of Human Rights”. While giving due regard to past proclamations of human rights, which dated back as far as Mencius in the fourth century B.C.E., as well as to their inclusion in national constitutions, the article pointed out that international action on human rights was a more recent development. It documented the intended establishment of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, dedicated to preparing an international bill of rights. These were the Organization’s first steps towards a new chapter in the age-old struggle for human rights.
Six months later, in January 1947, the Commission held its first session. The French scholar Henri Laugier, in his capacity as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Social Affairs, opened the session amid what he called an “omnipresent urge” to safeguard human rights and defend human values in the wake of the Second World War. “Let us gather strength for our fight”, he said, “from the recent memory of the long night through which we have come, during which tens of millions of human beings died that Human Rights may stay alive.”1
Eleanor Roosevelt was elected Chair, and she took up the role with a keen sense of the Commission’s importance, especially as the Charter of the United Nations—already in force for 16 months—referred to “human rights” seven times. The second line of the Charter expressed determination “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”. Yet such rights had never been defined at the international level.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretariat was receiving hundreds of letters protesting alleged violations of human rights—a flood of appeals that had only just begun. As reported to this magazine, Laugier recognized that the fledgling Commission lacked the competence to conduct enquiries or hold hearings on such complaints, but he noted, nevertheless, that “these appeals arising from the depths of the conscience of mankind must find an echo, must find in the United Nations a pertinent and just reply”.2
In appealing to our sense of the inherent dignity of every human being, the Declaration gives meaning to our ability to know human rights violations when we see them.
Mrs. Roosevelt was also chair of the Commission’s Drafting Committee, and therefore entrusted with formulating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its preliminary form. The starting point was a 408-page outline of a bill of rights that incorporated, among numerous other sources, provisions from the constitutions and laws of most of the Member States of the United Nations. What followed were six stages of review and revision as the draft moved towards approval. Mrs. Roosevelt chaired over 3,000 hours of deliberation to define human rights and decide whether they applied to everyone, everywhere. She had an air of assurance, writing for this magazine in late February 1947 that when the bill of rights is accepted “a new and encouraging point will have been reached in the history of human rights”.3
From the beginning, the reporting in this magazine reflected a clear consensus about the need for the Commission to produce not just a declaration, but also means whereby human rights could be assured—that is, a covenant and adequate machinery for dealing with cases of infraction. After two years, however, reality set in: the task of producing a complete declaration had consumed all the Commission’s time, those latter outcomes were not within reach, and work towards them was inchoate.
In July 1948, Mrs. Roosevelt wrote again for this magazine, which by then had shortened its name to the United Nations Bulletin. This time, she expressed disappointment that the Commission only succeeded in drafting the Declaration, which “might be just pious hopes” without a convention and means of enforcement. She saw its potential, however, supposing that “one could devise some implementation through education for the Declaration”, and that “nations of the world might be requested to carry out a real program” based on its principles. It might also be considered a basis, she figured, for defining the promises on human rights in the Charter.4
In November 1948, as the General Assembly’s Third Committee debated the draft Declaration, anticipation grew. This magazine reported, “It is indeed natural that so much attention should be given to this document because, when it is finally adopted, this first international definition and proclamation of man’s fundamental rights and freedoms will become one of the great landmarks of civilization. But, in a world impoverished by cynicism, it is also noteworthy that such anxious scrutiny should be given to a document which when it is finally approved will have only moral authority and significance.”5
Today, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights continues to have remarkable influence, not least as the point of origin for our ample collection of human rights treaties, laws, instruments and mechanisms. In appealing to our sense of the inherent dignity of every human being, the Declaration gives meaning to our ability to know human rights violations when we see them, from civilians maimed or killed amid the destruction of war, to children begging or peddling in public instead of attending school. Per the Declaration, such actions, and other hallmarks of inequality and conflict, do not conform to our “common standard of achievement for all peoples”, which includes freedom from fear and want.
Below is the article by Mrs. Roosevelt published by this magazine on 1 January 1949, following the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. She has the last word.
“The Rights of Assembly”6
By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
Chairman, Human Rights Commission
I am glad to say a word about this very important step forward which has been made in the acceptance by the General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is only the first step. There are others still to be taken, and we hope that in the next General Assembly the first Covenant, including methods of implementation, will be presented and accepted.
In the meantime, a great satisfaction should permeate the thoughts of all men, for the great documents declaring man's inherent rights and freedoms which in the past have been written nationally, are now merged in an international, universal Declaration.
Forty-eight nations, through their representatives in the United Nations, have accepted this Declaration as a standard declaration of principles in the field of the rights and freedoms of man. In doing so, the nations have agreed that they would strive for the attainment of these standards. No nation voted against the Declaration, two nations were absent and eight abstained.
Naturally, it is not a perfect document and being as it must be, a composite document to meet the thoughts of so many different peoples, there must be a considerable number of compromises. On the whole, however, it is a good document. We could never hope for perfection no matter how many times we revised a Declaration, for one could always see something a little better that one might do. For that reason, I think a beginning had to be made and in the light of experience, changes may be made in the future just as they have been made in the past in many of the other great documents of history.
It is quite possible that because of the signing by the nations of the Convention on Genocide and the acceptance by the Member governments of the Declaration of Human Rights, that this Assembly, which met in Paris in 1948, may become known as the Rights of Man Assembly. I think those of us who were delegates will be proud to have been connected with it, and I am glad that the Third Committee was guided by its chairman, Dr. Charles Malik, of Lebanon, to the successful achievement of one of its most difficult tasks, the final acceptance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Notes
1“Opening of Human Rights Commission: Mrs. Roosevelt Elected Chairman”, United Nations Weekly Bulletin, vol. II, No. 4 (United Nations Department of Public Information, 4 February 1947).
2 Ibid.
3 “Message from Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Chairman, Commission on Human Rights”, United Nations Weekly Bulletin, vol. II, No. 7 (United Nations Department of Public Information, 25 February 1947).
4 “A Comment by the Commission Chairman: Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt”, United Nations Bulletin, vol. V, No. 1 (United Nations Department of Public Information, 1 July 1948).
5 “Searching Study of Human Rights Declaration: Clause by Clause Debate on Commission’s Draft”, United Nations Bulletin, vol. V, No. 9 (United Nations Department of Public Information, 1 November 1948).
6 “The Rights of Assembly”, United Nations Bulletin, vol. VI, No. 1 (United Nations Department of Public Information, 1 January 1949).
The UN Chronicle is not an official record. It is privileged to host senior United Nations officials as well as distinguished contributors from outside the United Nations system whose views are not necessarily those of the United Nations. Similarly, the boundaries and names shown, and the designations used, in maps or articles do not necessarily imply endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
