Human Rights in the United Nations

Abstract

world viewpoint on human rights must be that of the United Nations, and the reconciliation of conflicting views must be the outcome of the patient activity of the United Nations in endeavouring, under the Charter, to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms. Therefore the story of human rights at an international level is none other than the story of human rights in the United Nations. This very vast subject goes back ultimately to the four freedoms proclaimed by President Roosevelt as lying at the base of the issues of the second world war freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech and freedom of belief. There was a very strong feeling during the second world war that this time military victory was not enough, but that an end must be put to the possibility of violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms by tyrannies and dictatorships. When the first draft of the Charter of the United Nations was drawn up at Dumbarton Oaks certain minimum provisions concerning this matter found their way to the text of the draft, and at the San Francisco Conference, largely due to the enlightened activity of certain non-governmental organizations particularly religious organizations these provisions were considerably amplified ; in 1946 the Commission on Human Rights was set up for the express purpose of fulfilling the promise of the Charter in regard to this matter. This Commission, headed by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, than whom, no person was more fit to carry on the inspiration of her husband in this general field, worked assiduously for two years on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and when the Declaration was proclaimed by the General Assembly in December 1948 every word and comma and semicolon was gone over most carefully several times by the chancelleries and representatives of some fifty-eight governments, so that, considering the supreme importance of its subjectmatter, this document marked, on the theoretical side, a veritable mile-