Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages. The UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels (all containing references to it in their preambles).

Eleanor Roosevelt and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, November 1949 © Wikimedia Commons

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 –1962)
As the chair of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Eleanor Roosevelt was the driving force in creating the 1948 charter of liberties which will always be her legacy: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In 1946, Roosevelt was appointed as a delegate to the United Nations by President Harry Truman, who had succeeded to the White House after the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945. As head of the Human Rights Commission, she was instrumental in formulating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which she submitted to the United Nations General Assembly with these words:
“We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta for all men everywhere.”
Called “First Lady of the World” by President Truman for her lifelong humanitarian achievements, Roosevelt worked to the end of her life to gain acceptance and implementation of the rights set forth in the Declaration. The legacy of her words and her work appears in the constitutions of scores of nations and in an evolving body of international law that now protects the rights of men and women across the world.
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

Heather Cox Richardson December 10, 2023
Seventy-five years ago today, on December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly announced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Although eight countries abstained from the UDHR—six countries from the Soviet bloc, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia—no country voted against it, making the vote unanimous. The declaration was not a treaty and was not legally binding; it was a declaration of principles.
Since then, though, the UDHR has become the foundation of international human rights law. More than eighty international treaties and declarations, along with regional human rights conventions, domestic human rights bills, and constitutional provisions, make up a legally binding system to protect human rights. All of the members of the United Nations have ratified at least one of the major international human rights treaties, and four out of five have ratified four or more.

Children of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi accept the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf
(AP) — The teenage children of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi accepted this year’s Nobel Peace Prize in the Norwegian capital on Sunday on behalf of the mother they haven’t seen in years, reading out a speech she penned from a Tehran prison as her medal rested on an empty chair.
Mohammadi, 51, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in October for her decades of activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. She is renowned for campaigning for women’s rights and democracy in her country, as well as fighting against the death penalty.
Kiana and Ali Rahmani, Mohammadi’s 17-year-old twins who live in exile in Paris with their father, received the prestigious award at Oslo City Hall, which was richly adored with blue orchids for the occasion. Daughter Kiana read the first part of the Nobel Peace Prize lecture in their mother’s name, and her brother continued it.
Mohammadi played a leading role in protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last year while in police custody for allegedly violating the country’s strict headscarf law, which forces women to cover their hair and entire bodies.
Iranian authorities banned members of Amini’s family from traveling to accept the European Union’s top human rights prize — the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought — on her behalf, the U.S.-based HRANA said late Saturday.
Narges Mohammadi is the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi in 2003

7 December
The John Peters Humphrey archive added to the Canada Memory of the World Register
(McGill) To mark the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1948), McGill University and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO are pleased to announce the addition of the archives of John Peters Humphrey to the Canada Memory of the World Register.
This archive includes the first handwritten draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as typed subsequent versions written by Humphrey (1905-1995), Canadian law professor and human rights advocate.
Humphrey was a Professor of Law at McGill University when he was invited to work with a committee of the United Nations Secretariat chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt to help the organization draft a statement on human rights. Following the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, Humphrey continued working with the UN in various roles, returning to McGill to serve as Professor of Law and Political Science in 1966. A French delegate claimed to have written the first draft of the declaration and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1968. However, Humphrey’s first handwritten drafts were later discovered and published. He is now widely accepted as the Declaration’s first author.

On 10 December 2023, an exhibition titled “Beyond the Declaration: A Canadian Perspective on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” will open at the Nahum Gelber Law Library. The exhibit, curated by Kristen Howard and Ana Rogers-Butterworth, will feature items from the John Peters Humphrey archive, including the original draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.