HOW THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS CAME TO BE WRITTEN 

by Ann Pinna

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a document commissioned by the United Nations in 1945 at the request of member countries after World War II and also in response to those who were outraged at the atrocities committed by the Nazis.  The HISTORY of how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights came to be written is a long, but interesting series of events. Below is a timeline that shows how the UDHR evolved and the significant role that Eleanor Roosevelt played in its formulation.

l944 (fall) DUMBARTON OAKS  (Washington, D.C.) - Allied countries meet after WW II to create an international organization to maintain world peace. (US, Great Britain, USSR, China, etc.)  

1945 (Feb.-Mar.) PAN AMERICAN CONFERENCE (Mexico City) - Latin American  countries fight vigorously to include a commitment to have human rights included in the UN Charter.

Over 1300 non-governmental agencies join together and put ads in  newspapers demanding that human rights become an integral part of any future international organization.  They call for a “clear and substantive commitment to human rights” and that it be included in the UN charter.

1945 (April-May)    Conference on International Organization  (San Francisco) 

Representatives from 46  nations gather together to form the United Nations. The conference is pressured by 42 American organizations, acting as consultants to the US delegations as well as representatives from other countries who call for a clear protection for individual human rights.

The UN Charter is written and governments of the world legally commit themselves to “promote” and “encourage” respect for the inalienable human  rights that belong to every man, woman, and child everywhere.  The UN Charter gives human rights a new international legal status.  ( It mentioned human rights at least  5 times).

The UN Charter, Article 68 mandates that the UN Economic and Social Council set up the Commission on Human Rights. (It is the only subsidiary body specifically mentioned in the Charter.  This newly created  “Commission on Human Rights” would spend the first three years after the UN Charter was adopted in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

The air was ripe for public acceptance of a bill of rights.  The Nuremburg Trials of Nazi war criminals intensified an audience already outraged by Nazi atrocities during the war.  The world demanded a confirmation of the basic rights of all citizens.  Most everyone agreed these rights should be written down.  “The bestial behavior of fascist regimes...so offended the global conscience that statesmen and citizens alike began to search for international protection for some basic standard of human dignity and worth.”  (Johnson, Anniversary, p.26)

December 1945 - President Truman asks Eleanor Roosevelt to serve as US elegate to help organize the UN in London.  ER is unsure of her abilities but believes the UN is the only hope for peace in this world and accepts Truman’s offer.  (Eleanor Roosevelt, Autobiography,p.29)

January  l946  (London)- 1st organizing meeting of the United Nations Eleanor Roosevelt is asked to work on the Third Committee which deals with humanitarian, educational, and cultural questions. At first, ER has no idea what the Third Committee does, but she humbly agrees, saying they had put her in a “safe spot” where she “couldn’t do much harm.” (Ironically, they were never further from the truth!) 

The American Law Institute draws up a draft and a Panamanian delegation introduces it to the first session of the UN General Assembly. This officially puts the drafting of an international bill of rights on the UN’s agenda.

Several citizen groups also submit drafts for an international bill of rights:

• The American Bar Association 

• The American Jewish Committee

• The Federal Council of Churches

• The American Federation of Labor 

•  The Women’s Trade Union League

• The American Association of the UN

• The Commission to Study the Organization of Peace

Private citizens from 9 different countries submit drafts.

Drafts are also submitted by international non-governmental agencies:       The Inter-American Bar Association and The International League for the Right of Man.

February  1946 - The Economic and Social Council creates the “Nuclear Commission of  Human Rights."

Spring 1946-(April - May) - Hunter College, N.Y.- Opening meeting of a “Nuclear” (Preparatory)

Commission on Human  Rights.

This Commission was charged by the UN Economic and Social Council with the task of making recommendations concerning the structure and membership of a permanent Human Rights Commission.

The recommendations made by this “Nuclear” or “preparatory” Commission were as follows:

There are 3 main tasks for the Human Rights Commission.

1. Write a declaration that would name and define all  the human rights, not only the traditionally recognized political and civil rights, but also the more recently recognized social, economic, and cultural rights. Basically, it would list the goals and aspirations that all men and women should enjoy in all countries of the world.

2.  Since the General Assembly is not a world parliament, it would be necessary to follow the declaration by a Covenant or Covenants) which would take the form of a treaty and would be legally binding on the countries that accept them.

3.  Put in place a system for the implementation and enforcement of these rights. ( legal force) 

It was also recommended that the Human Rights Commission be composed of 18 members, each of whom would represent one of the UN governments and they should be chosen on a rotating basis with due regard to geographical distribution, except for representatives from the 5 great powers:

• The United States

• The United Kingdom

• China 

• Soviet Russia

• France 

(There would be 5 permanent seats and 13 rotating members.)

The recommendations and proposals made at this meeting were presented to and accepted by the  UN Economic and Social Council..  

President Truman nominates Eleanor Roosevelt as the first US representative on the Human Rights Commission. (ER is concurrently a US representative to the UN General Assembly.  Her UN commitment lasted from 1945-1953.)

June 1946 - THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS  is established by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) .

John P. Humphrey, a Canadian lawyer , UN Secretariat, and Director of the UN’s Human Rights Division, prepares a 408 page outline to direct the Commission on Human Rights in their mission.  As representatives of their respective governments, their mission is to write a document that would enumerate the rights and freedoms that countries throughout the world could uphold.  This was the first time a community of nations would sit down together to identify the rights and freedoms that all people on earth should enjoy for all time.  They knew they were dealing with a very serious subject, and it would take the next 3 years to write and approve the UDHR.

Jan 27 -Feb. 10, l947-COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS meets.

The following delegates are charged with creating the draft of an international bill of rights:

Eleanor  Roosevelt (United States) - Chairperson

Rene Cassin  (France) - Vice Chair- a distinguished French lawyer, philosopher, and outstanding public speaker who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on human rights.

P.C.  Chang  (China)-According to ER, Dr. Chang had a great sense of humor, was fun to be with, and had a Chinese proverb for every occasion.  Chang is said to have “utilized Confucian philosophy to find compromise language at particularly difficult points.” (Humphrey as quoted in Johnson, p. 21.)

Charles Malik (Lebanon)  Rapporteur- To ER, he was a true humanitarian, an intellectual, and an able diplomat.

Also represented are delegates from the following countries:

Australia, Chile, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, the Ukranian SSR, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia.

June 9, l947 - 1st meeting of the  COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS                                                 (Lake Success, New York)

Their task is to contemplate Secretariat John Humphrey’s 408 page outline of human rights.   Humphrey’s outline included:

(1) blueprints presented by the governments of Chile, Cuba,  Panama, the United Kingdom, and the US.

(2) elements from the constitutions of 55 other nations

(3) recommendations from various non-governmental human rights organizations.

(4) recommendations from private citizens

Before composing a document, the drafting committee has to address the legal nature of the proposed bill.  Certain nations, including the US, favor a “morally persuasive” declaration, while other countries prefer a “legally binding” treaty.  Eleanor Roosevelt suggests a compromise and includes both a moral and a legal obligation in the declaration.

Rene Cassin is chosen to compose a draft declaration based on Mr. John Humphrey’s original blueprint and it becomes  the working draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The drafting of articles continues over many months with several hurdles to overcome.

Eleanor Roosevelt writes quite extensively about the continual problems and stumbling blocks offerred by the Russians and other Soviet nations.  [There was]...a great deal of controversy with the Russian representatives, particularly Dr. Pavlov, who attempted at every opportunity to write a bit of Communist philosophy into the document.  In addition, the Soviets made several vicious attacks on the U.S. government in regard to our discrimination policies against “Negroes” in the U.S. (Eleanor Roosevelt, On My Own, p.78 and 94.)

Problems and Hurdles ot Overcome While Drafting the UDHR

THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt spent thousands  of hours  conducting research, intensely studying how the document should be worded, engaging in debate on interpretation and translation to accommodate the myriad of cultures that the document had to encompass.  There was delicate negotiation as well as heated debate.   Numerous recommendations from a variety of sources were considered.  The committee argued and compromised.  They drafted, redrafted and drafted again the language of the declaration and its meaning.  Each word had to be chosen carefully and correctly translated into the language of each of the countries.  Customs and other social, cultural, and political differences had to be taken into consideration and evaluated. (FERI)

One such problem arose between the US and India over the issue of the right to a free education.   The US wanted the draft to read, “Everyone has a right to a primary, secondary, and higher education.”  India opposed it on the grounds that they simply did not have the economic resources to afford to provide higher education to all.  Thus, it became clear that it was difficult to phrase concepts acceptable to so many countries with so many diversified customs and economies that needed to be considered..

Another stumbling block concerned differences of the political systems among the member nations and western and eastern ideologies.  For example, one problem the US faced was that in some matters, the Federal government had no jurisdiction over states rights unlike the Soviet Union.  They could only “recommend” that the states take appropriate action.  Further, a Yugoslav delegate, espousing the Soviet viewpoint, said that the drafts reflected the social and political ideals of the “middle classes” and were therefore obsolete in the modern age.  In his opinion, the the principle of  “collectivity”  rather than  “individuality” should be given priority.

Over a period of time, there were several other controversies that needed to be discussed, argued, and eventually solved before agreement.  (See section on PROBLEMS IN WRITING THE UDHR.)

The Commission made slow progress in drafting the legally binding Covenants and even slower progress in framing measures for implementation and enforcement of the Covenants.  Late in 1947,  it was decided that the next Human Rights Commission would convene in Geneva.

Dec. 2, 1947- Geneva, Switzerland  The Commission on Human Rights meets again for 2 weeks.

Chairlady Eleanor Roosevelt is chided as being a “merciless slave driver.”  Highly organized and tolerating no lateness to meetings, Eleanor sets up a grueling 18 hour daily work schedule for all delegates so that they can accomplish the huge task before them and go home in time for Christmas.

“After the Geneva meeting,” ER writes, “ the Commission on Human Rights makes steady progress, despite a good many controversies with the delegates from Communist countries” who delivered many long propaganda harangues that appeared more for the purpose of publicizing the Communist point of view that in the hope  of making changes in the Declaration. (Eleanor Roosevelt, On My Own,p.84).

Dec. 1947- At the end of 2 weeks, the Commission on Human Rights completes a draft  declaration that is satisfactory to a majority of representatives and forwards the document to member states of the UN for comment.  The Commission on Human Rights  considers the comments of member states, and continues to work on writing and refining an International Bill of Human Rights.  This process occurs over a period of several months. 

May 8, 1948 - The draft is revised again and reintroduced at the next meeting of the full Commission.

June 18, 1948 - The Commission on Human Rights revises the draft and passes its report to the UN’s Economic and Social Council.  Further comments are elicited from member states and more revisions ensue.

Sept., 1948 - Paris - The ECOSOC sends the draft declaration to Committee Three for a vote before being forwarded later to the UN General Assembly for a final acceptance.  (ER is hopeful that it would pass Committee Three and be forwarded to the General Assembly very quickly.  However, it was not meant to be.)

ER is bitterly disappointed  She says,  “As the session opened I was full of confidence that we would quickly get the Declaration through the formal hearings before Committee Three [ social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Committee] and have it approved by the [General] Assembly.    My confidence was soon gone.  We worked for two months, often until late at night, debating every word of that draft Declaration over and over again before Committee Three would approve its transmission to the General Assembly.” (Eleanor Roosevelt, On My Own, p.85)

Finally, a draft declaration goes up for a vote before the Committee.  In the final vote in Committee Three, on presenting the Declaration to the Assembly, the delegates from  four Moslem countries abstained,  explaining that they believed the article on religious freedom was contrary to the Koran.  This was one of the biggest and most controversial setbacks.  However, the question was finally resolved.  Pakistan voted for acceptance of the Declaration and  the draft passes with the article on religious freedom included. (Eleanor Roosevelt, On My Own, p. 89)

The General Assembly’s Third Committee held a total of 85 meetings and considered 168 formal amendments 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 official languages of the UN.  Over 1400 separate votes were taken on various issues.  Although tedious, the process had a positive effect in so far as representatives of the 58 member nations were able to express their views, become actively involved in the process of drafting the declaration, begin to understand one another’s varying views, and commit themselves to the principles in the document.  President Evatt stated:  “A real enthusiasm gripped all its [Third Committee] members.  Even those who began their work rather skeptical of the possibilities of action in this field were before long caught up in the spirit of the undertaking and began to take an active and genuinely interested part.” (Dr. William Korey, “Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, p. 23)

Dec. 6, 1948, the Third Committee adopts the declaration and sends it to the General Assembly for final consideration by all the nations  of the world.

Dec. 10, 1948 (3 a.m.) After more debate, the UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY  calls for a vote of the member states of the UN to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (UDHR.)

Finally, despite differences in culture, political systems, geographic location, and economic circumstances, a common consensus was achieved and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted without dissent.

                                            48 nations vote YES

                                             8 nations abstained

                                             2 nations were absent

The Soviet Union and its satellite countries, China, and South Africa  were among the nations who abstained.

ER says, “In the end there was no vote cast against the Declaration in the General Assembly, but there were some disappointing absentions.” Listed below are the countries who abstained and their reasons why:

“The Soviet Union and its satellite countries abstained, since the Russian delegate contended that the Declaration put emphasis mainly on ‘eighteenth-century rights’  and not enough on economic, social and cultural rights.”

  “The delegate from Saudi Arabia, Jamil M. Baroody, abstained, saying that he was quite sure King Ibn Saud would not agree with Sir Zafrulla in interpreting the Koran.”

“South Africa also abstained, I was sad to note; its delegate said that they hoped to give their people basic human rights, but that the Declaration went too far.”

It would take 18 years to forge agreement on the Human Rights Covenants and another 11 years after that to ratify the treaties.  (Eleanor Roosevelt, On My Own, p. 89)

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Website (FERI), http://www.udhr50org.

Johnson, M. Glen. “Writing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” in The Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, 45th Anniversary, 1949-1993.

New York: UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1994.

Korey, William. “Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” in Eleanor Roosevelt-Her Day by David A. Gurewitsch, M.D. New York: Interchange. Foundation, 1973.

Roosevelt, Eleanor. The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt. New York:DaCapo Press, 1989.

Roosevelt, Eleanor.On My Own. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers,1958.