(Paris) On December 10, 1948, the UN adopted in Paris the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a global humanist ambition displayed shortly after the victory of the Allies over the Nazis.
It is one of the first major achievements of the newly formed United Nations and the first time that the needs for freedom, equality and justice have been given universality.
Gathered at the Palais de Chaillot, the audience applauded for a long time, standing, for this text born from the aspiration for a better world, after the atrocities of the Second World War, from Auschwitz to Hiroshima.
PHOTO DIMITAR DILKOFF, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Declaration, without binding force, affirms the primacy of the rights and freedoms of individuals over the rights of States, by enshrining economic, social and cultural rights at the same level as civil and political freedoms.
Human rights must no longer be a domestic issue, as Hitler had claimed to prevent any foreign interference, but a “universal” issue.
The influential Eleanor Roosevelt
Chaired by the influential Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of American President Franklin Roosevelt who died in 1945, an editorial committee including personalities from various countries was set up in 1947, after months of preparation.
The Canadian John Peters Humphrey and the Frenchman René Cassin were the main leaders. UN member states then made amendments and proposals to the proposed charter.
“First manifesto that organized humanity has ever adopted”, according to the jurist René Cassin, its principles are inspired by the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789.
Several women weighed in on its writing. We owe in particular to Hansa Mehta, a fervent activist for women’s rights in India and abroad, the reformulation of the first article of the Declaration “all men are born free and equal” to “all human beings are born free and equal”.
The Declaration was adopted by consensus, by 48 of the 58 members, 2 being absent (Yemen and Honduras) and 8 having abstained (Belarus, Ukraine, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia as well as Saudi Arabia, which contests gender equality, and apartheid South Africa).
At a time when the world was divided between the Eastern and Western bloc, finding common ground was a colossal task, with communists denouncing an excess of individual and political rights to the detriment of social rights.
Western democracies, for their part, resisted the idea of translating the declaration into a binding legal instrument, fearing that it would be used against them by colonized countries. The Declaration was also cited by a certain number of colonized peoples to demand their autonomy.
A foundation of international law
Despite the ulterior motives that governed its creation, the UDHR inspired all post-war international treaties and is generally recognized as the foundation of international human rights law.
The international conventions of 1979 against discrimination against women, of 1984 against torture, of 1990 on the rights of the child, the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998 result directly from the UDHR. It also inspired “the right of interference” and humanitarian assistance.
But, if it has allowed certain progress towards “the common ideal to be achieved”, it has nowhere prevented violations of recognized fundamental rights.
And it does not escape criticism: the universalism it boasts has been described by certain countries as a Western diktat. Ideological, cultural and religious resistance has often manifested itself in sovereignist countries, such as China, Russia or in Muslim countries where Sharia law applies.