Topic 2: Origins and Purpose of the UDHR (Preamble paragraph 2, see MODULE 12)

(i) Part One

World War II directly or indirectly affected every country in the world. Seventy million people died, and the unspeakable atrocities committed by the German Third Reich regime horrified governments and populations.

During the war, planning commenced for a new international organisation to replace the League of Nations. In the spring of 1945, fifty governments and hundreds of non-governmental organisations met for the first time in San Francisco. Three years later, on 10th December 1948, they signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The preamble to the U.N. Charter includes these famous words: “We the peoples of the United Nations determined … to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small …”

Nations do have rights in relation to other nations. These are known as Sovereign Rights, but large nations tend to be more successful at asserting their rights than smaller nations. Sovereign Rights include external relations and internal governance, but internally they need to have regard to the Univeral Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights agreements.

(iI) Part Two

In 1941, before America’s active involvement in World War 2, President Roosevelt made what has come to be known as his Four Freedoms speech, which laid the foundation for the second part of this section of the Preamble.

”In the future day, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms,”

• ”The freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world”
• “The freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world”
• ”The freedom from want. . . economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants – everywhere in the world”
• ”The freedom from fear. . . a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point. . . that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbour – anywhere in the world”

We have a long way to go to reach what he envisaged, but the ideal is still worthwhile, indeed essential, to strive for.

(iii) Simplified version of paragraph 2 of the Preamble

Because respect for the equal importance of every human being is the only way the world will have freedom, justice and peace.