The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Declaration was drafted between 1947 and 1948, and arose as a response to the horrors experienced by the international community during the Second World War.

John Peters Humphrey, the (then) Director of the Division of Human Rights within the United Nations, initially developed the text. The Commission on Human Rights, which comprised members of the international community, and which was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, aided him in the task.

The final draft was adopted on December 10, 1948, by the General Assembly. In an address to the General Assembly in Paris the day before, Eleanor Roosevelt expressed her hope in the document being able to aid future generations.

“At a time when there are so many issues on which we find it difficult to reach a common basis of agreement, it is a significant fact that 58 states have found such a large measure of agreement in the complex field of human rights,” she said.

“This must be taken as testimony of our common aspiration first voiced in the Charter of the United Nations to lift men everywhere to a higher standard of life and to a greater enjoyment of freedom.”

The Declaration contains 30 articles, each detailing an aspect of human rights. These include, among others, the right to an education; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; the right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhumane treatment or punishment; and the right to life, liberty and security of person.

In an address to the General Assembly, the current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reaffirmed the importance of these articles within the declaration.

“We must continue until the timeless and universal principles in this Declaration become not just an inspiration or an aspiration, but the foundation of life for all of the world's people,” he said.

The UDHR has been labelled “the most translated document in the world” by the Guinness Book of World Records. It has also received widespread praise from world leaders and strong support from international organisations.

In a 1995 speech, Pope John Paul II labelled the Declaration “one of the highest expressions of the human conscience of our time”. The international non-governmental organisation Amnesty International has labelled the UDHR a ‘landmark’ of human rights.

“Every single person has rights – that is the essence of our humanity. Each of us has the duty to stand up, not just for our own rights, but also for those of others,” said the organisation on a message on its website.

However, the UDHR has not escaped criticism. It has been condemned over the decades for numerous shortcomings. In his book The Future of the United Nations, scholar Joshua Muravchik has enumerated many of the faults lying at the heart of human rights protection today.

Muravchik has particularly lambasted the UN Human Rights Commission for its structure and activities.

“Year after year, many of the governments on the short list cited annually by Freedom House as the ‘Worst of the Worst’ human rights violators…secure seats on the commission,” he writes.

“In 2001, an official preparatory meeting hosted by Iran for a UN human rights conference openly barred Jewish, Bahai, and Kurdish nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). Such blatant racial and religious discrimination is all too common in the world, but only in the UN is it perpetrated in the name of human rights.”

The Secretary-General has himself acknowledged the flaws present in international human rights protection. However, he insists that the international community must continue to stand firm in enforcing the Declaration’s aims.

“We have come a long way since the adoption of the Declaration. But we must also acknowledge that we have not yet lived up to its vision. Abject poverty, shameful discrimination and horrific violence continue to plague millions of people around the world,” he said.

“As we celebrate tonight we must also commit to working harder to make the Declaration's ideals a reality in people's lives. We must support the work of human rights defenders, non-governmental organisations, experts, policy-makers, journalists and all people of conscience.”