The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Origins, Drafting, and Intent [Paperback]

Selected byChoicemagazine as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1999

Born of a shared revulsion against the horrors of the Holocaust, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has become the single most important statement of international ethics. It was inspired by and reflects the full scope of President Franklin Roosevelt's famous four freedoms: the freedom of speech and expression, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear. Written by a UN commission led by Eleanor Roosevelt and adopted in 1948, the Declaration has become the moral backbone of more than two hundred human rights instruments that are now a part of our world. The result of a truly international negotiating process, the document has been a source of hope and inspiration to thousands of groups and millions of oppressed individuals.

No other books takes the reader behind the scenes into the drafting details. . . . [Morsink's] seminal account merits reading by all invested in the Declaration—activist, academic, official, or victim. —Jerome E. Shestack,American Journal of International Law

Introduction: The Declaration at Fifty
The Drafting Process Explained
The United Nations Charter and the Declaration
The Seven Drafting Stages
Original Intentions and the Cold War
The Eight Abstentions
Authors, Title, and Addressees
World War II as Catalyst
Personal Security and the Camps
Nazification and Legal Human Rights
The Problem with the Nuremberg Trials
Democracy, Free Speech, and Hate Speech
Special International Human Rights and the Role of the United Nations
Social, Economic, and Cultural Examples
Colonies, Minorities, and Women's Rights
The Communist Push for Nondiscrimination
The Problem of the Colonies
Race, Color, National Origin, and Language
Political Opinion, Property, and Birth
The Women's Lobby and Women's Rights
Privacy and Different Kinds of Property
The Lalӗ