Eleanor Roosevelt, Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Works to Expand the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Soviet Union is fighting her moves: “We deserted the Covenant and took refugees and suffered with that for two weeks. Now we are back on the Covenant and the same thing is going on. The Soviets just don’t want us to do anything and they have enlisted the Arabs on their side, for totally different reasons. Sometimes I think the Arabs don’t understand how much they are helping the Russian cause!”

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was established in 1946 to weave an international legal fabric to protect fundamental rights and freedoms. It was charged with examining, monitoring, and publicly reporting on human rights situations in specific countries as well as on major human rights violations worldwide. It also acted as a forum where countries large and small, non-governmental groups and human rights defenders from around the world could voice their concerns. It met for the first time in January 1947.

In 1946, Eleanor Roosevelt was appointed as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations by President Harry Truman, who had succeeded to the White House after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945. Of accepting, she wrote, “When I was offered an opportunity to serve on the United Nations organization, I accepted it. I did this … because it seemed as though I might be able to use the experiences of a lifetime, and make them valuable to my nation and to the people of the world … I knew, of course, how much my husband hoped that, out of the war, an organization for peace would really develop. It was not just to further my husband’s hopes, however, that I agreed to serve in this particular way. It was rather that I myself had always believed that women might have a better chance to bring about the understanding necessary to prevent future wars if they could serve in sufficient number in these international bodies.”

In 1947 she became the American representative and Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. She proved to be the driving force in creating and formulating the 1948 charter of liberties which will always be her legacy: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She submitted the Declaration to the United Nations General Assembly with these words: “We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta for all men everywhere.” It was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

She continued her work hoping to expand the Declaration, but progress was very slow up to the time her term as U.S. Delegate to the United Nations ended in December 1952. It took until 1966, four years after her death, for the UN General Assembly to adopt an international covenant or covenants enlarging the scope of international human rights: these would ultimately be called the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The two Covenants, along with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, now comprise the International Bill of Human Rights setting out civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights for all people of the world. This is her legacy.

In 1952, Roosevelt’s last year in office, Dean Acheson wrote to her when she travelled to the Middle East, India and Pakistan, saying “Your many speeches and personal appearances outside the Assembly, in which you presented the American viewpoint most successfully to the European public, were a major contribution to our general effort. I am sure, too, that your present trip will be a means of bringing the American views effectively to some of the Far Eastern peoples…”

A 1927 graduate of Yale Law School, Margerie Whiteman was a friend and adviser to Mrs. Roosevelt on the United Nations Human Rights Commission from 1947-1952. She was usually found seated directly behind Mrs. Roosevelt during meetings. Her greatest contribution to international law was the completion of a “Digest of International Law” in 1969. This fifteen-volume work served as a leading resource on international law for government officials and scholars.

Typed letter signed, on her Val-Kill Cottage letterhead but from the Hotel Crillon in Paris, 2 pages, January 17, 1952, to Margerie Whiteman. “My dear Marjorie: It was so good to get your letter. I can’t tell you how often I have wished for you over here. We deserted the Covenant and took refugees and suffered with that for two weeks. Now we are back on the Covenant and the same thing is going on. The Soviets just don’t want us to do anything and they have enlisted the Arabs on their side, for totally different reasons. Sometimes I think the Arabs don’t understand how much they are helping the Russian cause!

“I was only home a few days and spent a few hours in the State Department. I rather hoped you would come when the other people came and then I realized afterwards I was not being asked about anything on which you could have been asked to talk. I hope to get back in the spring, and when I do, I hope you will come to Hyde Park for a weekend. Perhaps you will be in New York when the Human Rights Commission is meeting, and that will make it easier for you.

“I think we are going to have to do a little more answering on the Covenant but we haven’t decided yet whether there are going to be two Covenants or one. There is no telling what this Committee will do; they are utterly unreasonable. I left Miss Thompson home as I did not think she could stand the trip to India on account of the diet question. I have taken Miss Corr with me and I hope we can stand it though I have lost my voice at the moment and I am not a good advertisement for durability, though I haven’t as yet missed any meetings. I will send your letter on to Tommy so she will get your regards. Until we meet again, love and good wishes for the New Year.” Provenance for this letter is an heir of Dr. Whiteman.

This is the best letter of Eleanor Roosevelt on her work at the UN for human rights that we have ever seen, and the first we have had. Provenance for this letter is an heir of Margerie Whiteman.