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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Drafting Committee · 1948

A 1948 United Nations declaration of human rights that Eleanor Roosevelt hoped would become an 'international Magna Carta'.

Roosevelt chaired the committee that drafted this declaration, her defining achievement as a diplomat.

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Black and white photo of an older woman with short wavy hair and a dark top and pearl necklace holding up a large poster titled 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights' with the UN emblem, reading its printed text.
Eleanor Roosevelt holding a poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Lake Success, New York, November 1949.

About this source

What it is

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 in Paris, drafted by a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt with work by jurists including René Cassin and John Peters Humphrey. It sets out 30 articles of basic rights and freedoms meant to apply to all people everywhere.

Why it matters

Eleanor Roosevelt hoped the Declaration would become an 'international Magna Carta', linking this twentieth-century text to the medieval charter's long reputation as a symbol of rights and limits on power. The Declaration shows how Magna Carta's legacy was invoked centuries later to support a global, universal statement of human rights, even though the two documents differ greatly in origin and content.

Look closer

  • Why might people compare a modern UN document to a 13th-century English charter?
  • What rights does the Declaration list that Magna Carta did not address?
  • Who drafted this document, and whose voices might not have been included?

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Black-and-white photograph of an older woman with short wavy hair, wearing a dark dress and a pearl necklace, holding up a large poster titled 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights' with the UN emblem. The poster's text is in columns, and a dark curtain is behind her.Photograph

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