The Drafting Process of the Declaration

1. Tribute should be paid to three different groups. Firstly, to Eleanor Roosevelt and her advisers, mainly from the US Department of State. Somehow, she was able to maintain a generally harmonious atmosphere during virtually the whole of the long meeting phase.

2. Second, to the many prominent people who provided drafts to the Committee for its consideration.

3. Finally, there was the enormous work done by the secretariat, led by Professor J. P. Humphrey, that brought all this material together for the Commission to consider. When the Commission finally took its vote on 18 June 1948, twelve of its fifteen members voted in favour.

4. The Soviet Union, Byelorussia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia abstained. The draft then went to the Economic and Social Council, which did not change the text but arranged for it to go to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, where it struck difficulties.

5. It was fortunate that the Committee's chairman at the time was Charles Malik. After no less than 81 long meetings, at which at least 168 amending resolutions were considered, the Committee, on 6 December 1948, at last reached agreement.

6. On the evening of 10 December 1948, the General Assembly endorsed the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights without amendment, only two days before it rose until the next year.

7. There were no dissenting votes, but the six communist countries then members of the UN, and also Saudi Arabia and South Africa, abstained. The Assembly, in a rare gesture of appreciation, gave Mrs. Roosevelt a standing ovation.

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Choose one paragraph from the following reading that best suits each statement.

#1. The principles of the Declaration have been implemented in the constitutions of many UN member states. (…)

#2. The Declaration is not the very document to follow by all countries. (…)

#3. International community under this document is empowered to observe how the governments treat their own citizens. (…)

#4. The Declaration was adopted almost unanimously. (…)

#5. A Commission on Human Rights was set up to draft a document interpreting the meaning of the fundamental rights and freedoms. (…)

The International Magna Carta

1. Member states of the United Nations pledged to promote respect for the human rights of all. To advance this goal, the UN established a Commission on Human Rights and charged it with the task of drafting a document spelling out the meaning of the fundamental rights and freedoms proclaimed in the Charter.

2. On December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the 56 members of the United Nations. The vote was unanimous, although eight nations chose to abstain.

3. The UDHR, commonly referred to as the international Magna Carta, extended the revolution in international law ushered in by the United Nations Charter – namely, that how a government treats its own citizens is now a matter of legitimate international concern, and not simply a domestic issue.

4. It claims that all rights are interdependent and indivisible. Its Preamble eloquently asserts that:

5. “Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.”

6. The influence of the UDHR has been substantial. Its principles have been incorporated into the constitutions of most of the more than 185 nations now in the UN.

7. Although a declaration is not a legally binding document, the Universal Declaration has achieved the status of customary international law because people regard it "as a common standard of achievement for all people and all nations."

$AM 0859, 18, 1, 1,0,0

Choose one paragraph from the following reading that best suits each statement.

#1. These organizations observe the governments actions and force them to follow the provisions of the Declaration of Human Rights. (…)

#2. Some leaders have promoted great changes in their countries under the human rights banners. (…)

#3. The gist of human rights is a conception of freedom and justice for people all over the world. (…)

#4. Violation of human rights mobilizes millions of people to confront injustice and inhumanity. (…)

#5. Government officials have rarely been champions of human rights. (…)