Daily Star Home  

<%-- Page Title--%> Star Law history <%-- End Page Title--%>

  <%-- Page Title--%> Issue No 128 <%-- End Page Title--%>  

February 8, 2004 

  <%-- Page Title--%> <%-- Navigation Bar--%>
<%-- Navigation Bar--%>
 

 

The Universal Declaration of 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 within the context of World War II and in the presence of the advocates of the people that the United Nations Charter was written. And, it was at this 1945 "Conference on International Organisation", 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.

Struggle for recognition
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. US 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 centred 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 unrivalled 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 organisations 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 US endorsement of any international treaty) favoured 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 organisations 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
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."

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.

 









      (C) Copyright The Daily Star. The Daily Star Internet Edition, is joiblished by the Daily Star