History 1906-

History

The Declaration of Human Rights

In the 1940's, the Soviet Union was the United States' only significant international rival.  The Russians believed their political philosophy should be spread world-wide with themselves in charge.  Aunt Eleanor believed that the ideal of communism, in which every citizen would share equally with every other citizen, was a perfect expression of man's longing for a fair and altruistic society.  She also believed that the Soviet Union was as far from a truly communistic society as Hitler had been from democracy.
    Aunt Eleanor met the Russians head-on as she chaired the eighteen-nation commission (which included the Soviet Union) to draw up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  It seemed that nobody thought it could be done, but that was just the sort of challenge to which Aunt Eleanor responded.
    In her letters from Geneva, she described the Russian representative rising to his feet every morning and, for twenty minutes, exhorting the commissioners to follow the glorious example of the Soviet Union.  Aunt Eleanor would let him speak, then bang the table with her gavel, and discussion of each article in the document would begin again.
    For more than a year, she had it written in her calendar that they would return to the United States by Christmas of 1948 with a completed declaration for the General Assembly to ratify.  She did not intend to disappoint herself even if every word used in the declaration had to be approved.  A State Department advisor described my aunt as being an astonishing combination of naivet and cunning.  She would turn to a Russian delegate and say, "I know I am only a woman, and women don't know about these things, but..."  And she just as sweetly invited any Russian to visit the United States, "If you will let us travel in your country."  (She had been denied a visa to travel in the Soviet Union).
    The deadline would not have been met had she not insisted upon long hours every day and meetings on Saturdays, even Sundays if the objective had not been reached.  The delegates complained about their "slave driver."  "How about human rights for us?" they chided.  She replied that she would never again believe that women talk more than men do.  If they didn't talk so much, they would get more work done.
    Aunt Eleanor spoke often and eagerly about the difficulties of hammering out a universal declaration.  For instance, when she suggested that the first article of the Declaration be based on the U.S. Constitution, which begins, "All men are created equal," there was an immediate uproar.  The delegate from India submitted that "men" pointedly left out women and could not be tolerated.  The Chinese objected to the word "Created" as implying a religion.  Most delegates could not agree on a definition of "equal."  Aunt Eleanor realized that the entire declaration would have to be drawn up word by word, and in words whose translation into other languages would not obscure a universal meaning. 
    There was also argument about the freedom to work.  In the United States, a person may work anywhere he or she wishes to, at any job he or she chooses.  In the Soviet Union, the citizens indeed enjoyed the right to work, but that right translated into an obligation to work where the state wanted them to work, at jobs the state required.
    The return of prisoners of war became a stumbling block as well.  World War II was just over.  The allies hoped they had won an enduring peace and freedom for all people.  Prisoners of war could now return to their native lands.  The Soviet Union would, indeed, accept their returning soldiers and refugees, but some of them would unfairly be tried for treason.
    Aunt Eleanor became aware that fascists and communist states regard government as the ruling body of the nation, whereas in a democracy the people are the ruling body.
    On the day in December when the commission finally finished its work and voted the declaration ready to be brought before the General Assembly, Aunt Eleanor gave a small reception for her colleagues at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.  She wrote to me after all the guests had left and she was walking through the empty halls with her advisor, she came up with a better way to celebrate than with a glass of champagne at a party.  The marble floors were polished to the shone of black ice.  My aunt's feet were long and narrow, and her low0heeled shoes had leather soles.  She ran, gathering momentum, and then slid down the hall, her arms outstretched in triumph.  It was so much fun that she did it again.
    In New York City on the 10th of December, 1948, Aunt Eleanor stood before a plenary session of the General Assembly of the United Nations and read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so painstakingly hammered out by her commission.  It was unanimously accepted.  Then the Assembly did something it had never done before.  Everyone rose to honor the speaker.  This particular speaker had been able to put together a document that few thought possible, and, not only that, it was a woman who had done it.

The First American Woman at the UN

    With brightness in her eyes and slight hand gestures, Aunt Eleanor described her work with the United Nations.  She had helped her husband think through the charter for the organization, and it remained a chief interest for her the rest of her life. 
    My aunt believed that nothing real is gained through force.  You must study your enemy, understand his motivations, make personal contact, and then work problems through.  The United Nations was such a forum for forging lasting peace.
    When President Truman appointed her one of the first five official delegates, it almost goes with out saying that she was the only woman delegate from the United States.  Along with five alternate delegates and a staff of advisors, five months after Uncle Franklin's death, she sailed to London for the gathering of the General Assembly.  Most of the US delegates had arrived at the New York City steamer dock in official limousines.  Aunt Eleanor drew up in a taxicab and, as always, carried her own bag on board.
    She wrote to me while she was gone, describing her stateroom as containing an impressive stack of Department of State briefs that explained the official position of the United States in every conceivable circumstance.  She said she missed her secretary but had left Tommy at home to handle the huge volume of personal mail, which was never less than two or three hundred letters a day.
    During the five-day sail to England, Aunt Eleanor informed herself on every aspect of her new position.  And every day, important, official documents, printed on blue paper, were added to the pile on her table.  Sometimes she found herself falling asleep as she tried to study the verbose reports.  Once, when she asked a gentleman from the State Department to translate a document into a language she could understand, he said, "Mrs. Roosevelt, I don't understand these words.  I don't think anyone is supposed to."
    In London, my aunt was received with acclaim.  She dined with the king and queen, who wanted to talk about the problems of the world's Jewry, and Lady Peasley, president of the World Women's Party for Equal Rights.  When the delegation met to assign their members to specific committees within the United Nations, they assigned my aunt to Committee Three.  Obviously, the men thought an appointment to the committee scheduled to deal with humanitarian, social, and cultural matters would be a safe place to put their controversial female member.  Surely she could do no harm (to any of their political careers) from there.  They, themselves, would deal with important subjects like government, military affairs, finance, and political involvement.
    Back in New York, after the initial meeting in London, it turned out that one of the jobs the Economic and Social Council had assigned to Committee Three was to set up an eighteen-nation commission on human rights.  The commission's first task would be to draft a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a kind of international bill of rights.  The group was given three weeks to set up an agenda to accomplish the task.  They met in New York City and were paid $15 a day.  After their first meeting, by unanimous acclamation, they chose my aunt to be their chairperson.
    On the second day, she was four minutes late and apologized, saying the New York subway had let her down.  During the second week, she came down with a case of shingles, but no delegate ever knew it.  Tommy and I, back at her apartment, worried about her and wished we could find her some relief.  But she just asked her doctor to cover the affected area with something that wouldn't ooze through her clothes while she went on with the important work of the commission.

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