Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), together with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR, 1976) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR, 1976), forms what has come to be known as the International Bill of Rights. In large part a response to the atrocities committed during World War II (1939–1945), the UDHR is the first major international document to enumerate a list of rights applicable to all people regardless of race, gender, or religion, in a broad range of categories, including political, civil, economic, and social rights. The creation of such a document was especially significant in that it represented a shift in international law from an almost complete focus on the relationship between states to the relationship between states and their citizens.

Although several states had pushed for the inclusion of a bill of rights in the United Nations (UN) Charter, consensus could not be reached on which rights to include or whether such rights should be included at all. As a result, the UN Charter approved at San Francisco in 1945 contained general references to the protection of human rights in several of its articles, but did not contain a specific listing of rights. Article 68 of the Charter did, however, require the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to "set up commissions in economic and social fields and for the promotion of human rights." That the drafting of an international bill of rights would be one of the first tasks of the UN was implicit in the negotiations that led to the signing of the Charter. U.S. President Harry S Truman (1884–1972) made specific reference to the creation of an international bill of rights in his closing speech at the San Francisco Conference.

To fulfill its Charter obligation, ECOSOC established the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in 1946 and charged it with creating a recommendation regarding an international bill of rights. At its first session in January 1947, the CHR created a Drafting Committee that would be responsible for preparing a preliminary bill of human rights. Originally composed of three members, the committee was quickly expanded to eight in order to represent more geographic and political perspectives. Former U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) was chosen to chair the Drafting Committee. The Drafting Committee worked closely with John P. Humphrey (1905–1995), the Director of the Secretariat's Division on Human Rights. He produced a working draft for the committee based on numerous texts that had been prepared by individuals, organizations, and states from around the world. The Drafting Committee began work with this draft during its first session in June 1947. The draft was subsequently revised during two additional sessions of the CHR and a second session of the Drafting Committee. All member states of the UN had the opportunity to comment on the document at some point during the drafting stages; members of the Drafting Committee itself included representatives from countries representing numerous different political, economic, and religious traditions.

The CHR sent the final draft of its declaration to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly. The Third Committee, composed of representatives from all UN member states, discussed and revised the document from September to December 1948. On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly adopted the document entitled the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by a vote of 48 to 0 with 8 abstentions. All the states that abstained would come to endorse the document in subsequent years, and all states that have subsequently joined the UN have recognized the UDHR.

Among the political and civil rights enumerated in the UDHR are the right to life, liberty, and security of person (Article 3); freedom from slavery (Article 4); equality before the law (Article 7); freedom from arbitrary arrest (Article 9); freedom from ex post facto laws, or laws that punish a person for an act that was not a crime at the time it was committed (Article 11); right to a nationality (Article 15); equal marriage rights for women and men (Article 16); and freedom of thought and religion, including the right to change religions (Article 18). The UDHR broke new ground by including a number of social and cultural rights such as the rights to social security and to work (Articles 22 and 23); "the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care…" (Article 25); the right to education (Article 26); and the "right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community…." (Article 27).

Much of the early debate on the UDHR was on whether or not the document would be in the form of a legally binding convention or simply a declaration by the UN. The Drafting Committee had three options to choose from: submit a draft declaration and a draft convention; submit a draft convention; or submit a draft declaration and leave the drafting a convention to later date. The eventual decision to create a nonbinding declaration allowed for greater unanimity at the time and the inclusion of several rights that may not have been endorsed by all states if they had been legally binding. Once the UN began moving forward on drafting a convention to legally implement the UDHR, the unanimity surrounding its adoption quickly dissipated into Cold War struggles and conflicts over state sovereignty . The United States, in particular, was hesitant to endorse the formalization of many of the economic rights it outlined, arguing that while they represented laudable goals,

guaranteeing those rights to all would be impossible for many nations to accomplish. Many other nations objected to allowing international oversight of the treatment of their citizens. Nonetheless, the rights contained within the UDHR would eventually be given formal legal status in the CCPR and the CESCR, as well as several other treaties addressing specific issues or categories of protected persons.

Despite the debates over its implementation and, to a lesser extent, its content, the UDHR paved the way for recognizing human rights at the international level. In the early twenty-first century many of the norms contained within the UDHR, such as the freedom from arbitrary detention and death, are widely recognized as peremptory, meaning that no state may derogate from them whether or not it has signed a treaty or convention containing those norms.

See also: Human Rights; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; International Human Rights Law.

bibliography

Danieli, Yael, Elsa Stamatopoulou, and Clarence J. Dias, eds. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Fifty Years and Beyond. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing, 1999.

Humphrey, John P. Human Rights and the United Nations: A Great Adventure. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Transnational Publishers, 1984.

Morsink, Johannes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting and Intent. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

United Nations. Charter of the United Nations. 1945. <http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/index.html>.

Eric W. Cox