The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting, and Intent

Abstract

In his 1941 State of Union message President Franklin Roosevelt called for protection worldwide of four essential freedoms: the freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Roosevelt's enunciation of these freedoms was part of a movement that gathered strength in 1940s and strived to make protection of human rights part of conditions for peace at end of World War II. In 1947 Eleanor Roosevelt was elected to be chair of United Nations Commission on Human Rights that was charged to produce a separate document for this purpose.The resulting Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, has become moral backbone of more than two hundred human rights instruments that are now a part of our world. The document has been a source of hope and inspiration to thousands of groups and millions of oppressed individuals.Johannes Morsink offers a behind-the-scenes account of Declaration's origins and development. He reports on detailed discussions that took place in United Nations, tells us which countries argued for or against each provision of Declaration, explains why certain important amendments were rejected, and shows how common revulsion toward Holocaust provided consensus needed to adopt this universal code of ethics.