Eleanor Roosevelt Has Questions Concerning the Bogota Conference, Which Formed the Organization of American States

The Ninth International Conference of American States was held in Bogotá in March and May, 1948. Delegates from twenty-one American republics were in attendance at a Bogotá Conference. There the group renamed itself the Organization of American States, and promulgated the OAS Charter on April 30, 1948. The OAS Charter reaffirmed the fundamental rights and duties of states, proclaimed the goals of the new organization, and established its organs and agencies.

After her husband Franklin died, Eleanor Roosevelt served as a United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. Marjorie Whiteman was Roosevelt’s personal legal advisor and one of the brightest legal scholars of international law.

Typed Letter Signed, Val-Kill Cottage, Hyde Park New York, February 17, 1950 to Marjorie Whiteman. “Is it true what this woman says about the Conference at Bogota? Also, what she says about the amendment?” No amendment was passed that year. The top is docketed as answered by Whiteman.

It’s not known what the reference to the Conference at Bogota relates to. Perhaps there is a hint in this article in the Toledo Post that it may relate to human rights, as the article states, “When the United Nations was formed after World War Two, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt spearheaded the passage of the organization’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What was called the Magna Carta of the most basic human and civil rights that should be enjoyed by all people of the world. While Eleanor Roosevelt was at the forefront of this timeless model of human rights, one of the key authors of its language was Dr. Marjorie Whiteman.”