Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is arguably one of the most comprehensive and widely accepted pronouncements of basic human liberties in the world. Presented to the General Assembly of the United Nations at Palais de Chaillot, Paris, in 1948, the declaration has served as a vanguard for identifying inalienable rights to which all people and nations are entitled as well as providing a populist multinational basis for eradicating oppression and discrimination. Often referenced as a Magna Carta for all humanity, the declaration's roots reside with the U.N. Charter, a document created to inform U.N. procedures and operations in light of atrocities committed during World War II. Although the U.N. Charter was valuable in clarifying key ideas related to human rights, the document did not operationally define many of the terms included. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, subsequently, was crafted to outline in detail a collective vision of human existence as well to specify objectives that member states agree to uphold. Given national differences across the then 58 member states, the document emerged as a landmark set of principles reflecting globally endorsed values, beliefs, practices, aims, and traditions. Stances set forth by the UDHR have become precedents for numerous international and national organizations such as Amnesty International, as well as treaties, declarations, constitutions, and laws such as the International Bill of Human Rights. Since 1948, the UDHR has been translated into approximately 250 languages.

Between January 1947 and December 1948, former U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the committee charged with drafting an initial version of [Page 1417]the UDHR. Other members of the eight-person committee included individuals from Australia, Chile, China, France, Lebanon, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the United Kingdom. John P. Humphrey of Canada directed the drafting of a 400-page working paper that guided the committee's task. The eight-member group focused on devising a document that highlighted the need to respect and protect freedoms and rights for all people in every nation unilaterally. To these ends, the group situated civil, political, social, cultural, and economic rights as the document's primary pillars. Significant elements of the UDHR, for example, promote freedom of religion and conscience; defend educational entitlements; and censure torture, cruel treatment, and inhumane punishment. After writing the initial draft, the committee submitted the document to the U.N. General Assembly for review and debate. Despite multinational support for creating the UDHR, the member states' discourse and analysis of the document were marked by geographical, religious, and cultural divisions. Some Western nations, for instance, were reluctant to affirm the need for economic and social equity, since the ideas were contrary to segregation laws such as Jim Crow practices in the United States. Ultimately, composing a final version of the text required member states to vote 1,400 times on virtually every element of the proclamation, including ideology, subject matter, and language, among other issues. The UDHR was adopted formally and unanimously on December 10, 1948. Eight member states—Byelorussian SSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Ukrainian SSR, South Africa, USSR, and Yugoslavia—abstained. Representatives from two nations were not present when the vote was taken. Since the decision was reached, December 10 has been celebrated as Human Rights Day worldwide.

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