Work record

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The United Nations General Assembly (Commission on Human Rights, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt)

10 December 1948 · Postwar Contemporary · Political Theory · English

Abstract

Written: 1948
Setting: After the Second World War; Paris (Palais de Chaillot)
Author: The United Nations General Assembly (Commission on Human Rights, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt)
Country: United Nations
Language: English (with French and other official languages)
Genre: International declaration
Form: A preamble and thirty articles
Recommended: Grades 9–12 (Abstract only; clear modern language.)

Origins. After the war and the Holocaust, the new world body set a commission to define the rights its Charter had promised but not listed. Members wanted a common standard that every nation could be held to.

Drafters. Under Eleanor Roosevelt's chairmanship, a Canadian secretariat lawyer wrote a first draft, a French jurist structured it, and Lebanese and Chinese delegates shaped its philosophy and its appeal across cultures.

Adoption. Meeting in Paris in December 1948, the Assembly approved it by forty-eight votes, with eight abstentions and no opposition. The Soviet bloc, South Africa and Saudi Arabia were among those abstaining.

Civil and political rights. The articles proclaim equal dignity and protect life, liberty, fair trials, privacy, family, property, conscience, religion including conversion, speech and participation in government, and forbid slavery and torture. Its opening article says all people are endowed with reason and conscience.

Social rights and duties. Further articles add work, rest, an adequate standard of living and education, giving parents first choice of schooling, and close with duties owed to the community.

Influence. Though not a binding treaty, it inspired later covenants and constitutions; it affirms human dignity without naming its source, a point Christian readers may weigh. December 10 is now marked each year as Human Rights Day.

Key figures

Eleanor Roosevelt: Chair of the Commission on Human Rights
John Humphrey: Author of the first draft
René Cassin: French jurist
Charles Malik: Lebanese philosopher
P. C. Chang: Chinese diplomat and scholar

Summary

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a statement of fundamental rights proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in Paris on 10 December 1948. It was written in the shadow of the Second World War and the Holocaust, when the founders of the United Nations resolved that the dignity of every person must be recognized by all nations. Forty-eight states voted for it; none voted against; and eight abstained, among them the Soviet Union and its allies, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. The drafting committee of the Commission on Human Rights was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of President Franklin Roosevelt. John Humphrey of the UN Secretariat prepared a first draft drawing on many national constitutions; René Cassin reworked it into a structured text; Charles Malik, a Lebanese Orthodox Christian philosopher, defended the priority of the human person over the state; and P. C. Chang of China urged a text acceptable across cultures. Their debates, and those of the General Assembly's committees, shaped every article. The Declaration has a preamble and thirty articles. The preamble declares that recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, and that disregard for human rights has resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind. Article 1 affirms that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and are endowed with reason and conscience. Articles 3 to 21 set out civil and political rights: life, liberty and security of person; freedom from slavery and torture; equality before the law; fair trial and the presumption of innocence; privacy; movement and asylum; nationality; marriage by free consent and the protection of the family as the natural and fundamental group unit of society; property; freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to change one's religion; expression, assembly and participation in government. Articles 22 to 27 add economic, social and cultural rights, including work, rest, an adequate standard of living and education, with the prior right of parents to choose the kind of education given to their children. The final articles speak of duties to the community and the limits of rights. The Declaration is not a treaty and was not legally binding, but it became the foundation of international human rights law, inspiring later covenants and many national constitutions. Readers may consider how the Declaration grounds human dignity, which it affirms without naming its source.

Plot or Argument

Preamble
Human dignity and equal rights are the foundation of freedom, justice and peace; the barbarous acts of the war have outraged conscience.
Articles 1–2
All are born free and equal in dignity and rights, without distinction of any kind.
Articles 3–11
Life, liberty and security; no slavery or torture; equality before the law; fair trial.
Articles 12–21
Privacy, movement, asylum, nationality, family, property, religion, expression, assembly and government.
Articles 22–27
Social security, work, rest, standard of living, education and cultural life.
Articles 28–30
A just social and international order; duties to the community; no right to destroy rights.

Lessons

Universal dignity
The Declaration affirms that every human being has dignity and rights. Christians ground that dignity in creation in the image of God.
- What does Article 1 affirm?
- On what foundation does the Declaration rest human dignity?
Related across the library
- On the American Indians (De Indis), Lesson: Rights grounded in God's image
  Rights grounded in God's image. Vitoria argues that the Indians' rights rest on their human nature, made in God's image with reason, not on their faith. Every person has dignity.
- Lectures on Revivals of Religion, Lesson: Urgency changes pastoral care
  Urgency changes pastoral care. The lectures favor immediate decision over slow discernment. That urgency can break paralysis, but it may also mishandle complex distress.
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Lesson: Rights and their foundation
  Rights and their foundation. The Declaration speaks of natural rights declared before the Supreme Being. The question of where rights come from shapes how securely they are held.
- A Treatise of Human Nature, Appendix To The Treatise Of Human Nature
  from it they still return back by one passage or another Even Mathematics Natural Philosophy and Natural Religion are in some measure dependent on the science of MAN since they lie under the cognizance of men and are judged of by their powers and faculties It is impossible to tell what changes and improvements we might make in these sciences were we thoroughly acquainted with the extent and force of human understanding and could explain the nature of the ideas we employ and of the operations we perform in our re...
- The Varieties of Religious Experience, Summary
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Religious liberty
Article 18 protects freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to change one's religion. Many believers have suffered where this right is denied.
- What does Article 18 protect?
- Why is the freedom to change one's religion especially important?
Related across the library
- Minersville School District v. Gobitis, Dissent of Justice Stone
  The very essence of the liberty which they guaranty is the freedom of the individual from compulsion as to what he shall think and what he shall say, at least where the compulsion is to bear false witness to his religion. Stone defines the liberty at stake as freedom from compelled profession.
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Lesson: Liberty and its limits
  Liberty and its limits. The Declaration defines liberty as freedom to do whatever does not harm others. Students can weigh this against older ideas of liberty as freedom to do what is good.
- Opening Statement at the Nuremberg Trial, Lesson: Law instead of vengeance
  Law instead of vengeance. Jackson praised the Allies for choosing trial over revenge. Justice restrains even the anger of victims.
- Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, Full Text
  which had been extensively felt and to restrain the legislature in future from violating the right to property That anterior to the formation of the constitution a course of legislation had prevailed in many if not in all of the states which weakened the confidence of man in man and embarrassed all transactions between individuals by dispensing with a faithful performance of engagements To correct this mischief by restraining the power which produced it the state legislatures were forbidden to pass any law impai...
- A Tale of Two Cities, Lesson: Love that restores
  Love that restores. Lucie is the golden thread of Book II: her patience draws her father back from the garret, holds the Soho household together and moves Carton's heart. Dickens presents faithful domestic love as a power stronger than imprisonment and hatred.
Parents and education
Article 26 gives parents a prior right to choose their children's education. The family comes before the state in forming children.
- What right does Article 26 give parents?
- Why might the drafters have included this right after the war?
Related across the library
- A Treatise of Human Nature, Appendix To The Treatise Of Human Nature
  from it they still return back by one passage or another Even Mathematics Natural Philosophy and Natural Religion are in some measure dependent on the science of MAN since they lie under the cognizance of men and are judged of by their powers and faculties It is impossible to tell what changes and improvements we might make in these sciences were we thoroughly acquainted with the extent and force of human understanding and could explain the nature of the ideas we employ and of the operations we perform in our re...
- Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers, The Shepherd Of Hermas
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- Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, Lesson: Learn, not teach
  Learn, not teach. Black argued that schools exist so that children can learn, and that taxpayers do not send them there to instruct their elders on public questions. His dissent defends the authority of parents, teachers and elected boards over the education of the young.
- Six Metaphysical Meditations, with Hobbes's Objections and the Replies, Full Text
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- Meyer v. Nebraska, Lesson: Parents, children and the state
  Parents, children and the state. The opinion describes the education of children as both a right and a natural duty of parents, enforced by compulsory attendance laws. The state's interest in forming citizens is real, but McReynolds holds that it does not extend to forbidding parents to have their children taught a modern language.

Context

After the Second World War, the United Nations Charter of 1945 committed its members to promote human rights but did not define them. The Commission on Human Rights was created in 1946 to draft an international bill of rights.

Composition

The drafting committee met from 1947, and the text was debated article by article in the Commission and in the General Assembly's Third Committee before its adoption at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris on 10 December 1948.

Reception

The Declaration was followed by the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1966. It has been translated into more than five hundred languages, and 10 December is observed as Human Rights Day.

Justice Law Power / Politics War Violence Faith / Religion Education

Comparisons

Opening Statement at the Nuremberg Trial
The Nuremberg trial and the Declaration both answered the crimes of the war with law.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The French Declaration of 1789 is an earlier universal statement of rights.
The Founding Documents
The American Declaration and Bill of Rights influenced many of its articles.
The Nuremberg Code (Permissible Medical Experiments)
The Nuremberg Code, drafted a year earlier, set out the rights of human research subjects.

Quotes

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

— The United Nations General Assembly (Commission on Human Rights, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt), The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Summary
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is the founding statement of the French Revolution. The National Assembly adopted it on 26 August 1789, a few weeks after the fall of the Bastille, as a preface to the constitution it intended to write. In a short preamble and seventeen articles, it sets out the principles on which the Assembly meant to rebuild France. The English translation used here was printed by Thomas Paine in Rights of Man (1791), his reply to Edmund Burke's attack on the Revolution....
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Article One
Men are born, and always continue, free and equal in respect of their Rights. The foundational statement of natural equality.
On Duties (De Officiis), Source
BOOK I MY SON MARCUS I Although as you have for a year been studying under Cratippus and that too at Athens you ought to be well fur nished with the rules and principles of philosophy on account of the pre-eminent reputation both of the master and the city the one of which can improve you by his learning the other by its examples yet as I for my own advantage have always combined the Latin with the Greek not only in philosophy but even in the practice of speaking I recommend to you the same method that you may e...
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On the American Indians (De Indis), Lesson: Rights grounded in God's image
Rights grounded in God's image. Vitoria argues that the Indians' rights rest on their human nature, made in God's image with reason, not on their faith. Every person has dignity.

“Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”

— The United Nations General Assembly (Commission on Human Rights, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt), The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26(3).

As You Like It, Full Text
say with me I love Aliena say with her that she loves me consent with both that we may enjoy each other It shall be to your good for my father s house and all the revenue that was old Sir Rowland s will I estate upon you and here live and die a shepherd Enter Rosalind ORLANDO You have my consent Let your wedding be tomorrow Thither will I invite the Duke and all s contented followers Go you and prepare Aliena for look you here comes my Rosalind ROSALIND God save you brother OLIVER And you fair sister Exit ROSALI...
The Science of Right, Summary
The Science of Right is W. Hastie's name for the Metaphysical First Principles of the Doctrine of Right (Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Rechtslehre, 1797), the first half of Kant's Metaphysics of Morals; the second half, the Doctrine of Virtue, followed later the same year. The library's text also includes Kant's general Introduction to the whole Metaphysics of Morals, which distinguishes juridical duties, enforceable by outward law, from ethical duties, which concern our inner ends and can be commanded only by...
Dracula, Chapter Xiii
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Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers, The Shepherd Of Hermas
the land and were handing them to the six young men And they took them and builded The stones that were dragged from the deep they placed in every case just as they were into the building for they had been shaped and they fitted in their joining with the other stones and they adhered so closely one with another that their joining could not possibly be detected and the building of the tower appeared as if it were built of one stone But of the other stones which were brought from the dry land some they threw away...
Hippocratic Writings, New York.
especially those of Fo s Van der Linden and K hn and likewise as will be seen many other editions of separate treatises so that altogether I trust it will be found that I have not often failed in attaining the true meaning of my author as far as it can now be ascertained I am aware indeed that situated as I am at a distance from public libraries and deprived of personal intercourse with learned men of congenial pursuits whom I could consult in cases where I felt myself in doubt I have labored under disadvantages...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

How the preamble links rights to peace.
Civil and political rights.
Economic and social rights.
How the Declaration grounds dignity.

Key terms and names

General Assembly: The body of the United Nations in which all member states are represented.
Human rights: Rights held by every person because he or she is human.
Inalienable: Unable to be given up or taken away.
Covenant: A binding treaty, such as the 1966 human rights covenants.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension When and where was the Declaration adopted?
Comprehension What does Article 18 say about religion?
Interpretation Why did the drafters begin the preamble with human dignity?
Interpretation Why might some states have abstained?
Interpretation Can human rights be universal without agreement on their source?
Interpretation Why did the drafters include both civil rights and economic and social rights?
Big Question What makes a person worthy of rights?

Faith Connections

Genesis 1:27 (Scripture)
Human beings created in the image of God, the Christian ground of universal dignity.
Acts 17:26 (Scripture)
God "hath made of one blood all nations of men": the unity of the human family.
Jacques Maritain, Introduction to Human Rights: Comments and Interpretations (UNESCO, 1949) (Great Conversation)
Maritain, a Catholic philosopher, explained how people of different beliefs could agree on practical rights.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Recognition of the equal dignity and rights of every human being is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace, and all nations should secure these rights.

Rhetorical device: enumeration. Thirty articles list rights one by one, from life and liberty to education and culture.

Debate: Resolved: that human rights require a foundation beyond human agreement.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain the main principles of the Universal Declaration and evaluate its foundation for human dignity.

Comparison with Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: Compare the Universal Declaration with the French Declaration of 1789.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Compare the grounding of rights in the Universal Declaration with the grounding of rights in the American Declaration of Independence.
Classroom
Choose five articles and find examples, past or present, of their being honoured or violated.
Dialogue
Write a conversation between Charles Malik and P. C. Chang about whether human rights need a religious foundation.