Press Statement by Eleanor Roosevelt

United States Mission to the United Nations 18 June 1948 [New York City]

The Human Rights Commission last week finished drafting a Declaration of Human Rights and I suspect that many people are asking: "What good does that do?" The question deserves an answer, and there is an answer, a good and simple answer. But fulfilling the answer is infinitely complex.

The answer is that when this Declaration is adopted by the General Assembly, with the changes that inevitably will be made by the Assembly, we shall have done the equivalent of providing the compass for the ship. In human relations—in the difficult job of living together in international harmony while giving the other fellow his due—we now have an instrument for determining the direction in which we are going.

Every scientist, every economist, every executive, every administrator knows that when he is faced with difficulties, to attack them he must know what he is attacking; to attain a goal he must define the goal. The United Nations knows that the world is far from perfect and that one of its imperfections is the fact that in many areas people are not free. To work toward greater freedom we must first decide what freedom is—what does every man and woman have a RIGHT to have? We have tried to frame an answer in the Declaration of Human Rights. I hope and believe that every country can endorse this Declaration when it is considered in the General Assembly.

Producing a meeting of the minds on what these rights ought to be was most difficult. That which a country or an individual considers a fundamental right depends much upon the history of freedom in that country, on the stage of political, economic and social development, and on the political, economic and social conditions of the moment. The Czarist Government of Russia failed to develop economic prosperity or social equality among the masses of people; it is not unnatural that Communist Russia should emphasize economic and social rights provided by the State. Our own experience was quite different: oppressed American Colonists formed a nation in which the emphasis was on individual rights with a minimum of government.

Customs and political practices change slowly in any country and in no two countries do they advance at the same rate. We in the United States have become so accustomed to women's suffrage that it may seem surprising to us that in some Western European countries women have voted only since the second world war; it is sometimes forgotten that only in this generation have women enjoyed suffrage in this country.³

The attitude of a people on the right to employment is deeply influenced by economic conditions at the time—whether they are prosperous or depressed. Attitudes toward free speech and press are influenced, for instance, by conditions of internal security; a country often invaded naturally is more wary of inflammatory speeches and editorials.

Despite these difficulties, despite these variations in attitudes and customs and historic precedent, we have produced a document of very great intrinsic worth. The United States has not always won its points. The Declaration is not exactly as we would have written it; on the other hand, no two Americans would have written it in the same way. But it is a sure guide. It is not unlikely that it will be of historic importance.

Americans will find in the Declaration a good many things with which they are very familiar. A good deal of good, sound American tradition and law are wrapped up in it. For example, the Declaration provides:

"No one shall be held in slavery or involuntary servitude." (Article 4)

"Everyone charged with a penal offense is presumed to be innocent until proved guilty …" (Article 9)

"No one shall be subjected to unreasonable interference with his privacy, family, home, correspondence or reputation." (Article 10)

"Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property." (Article 15)

These points are very close to the points made in our own Constitution.

Another article declares, "Everyone has the right to work, to just and favorable conditions of work and pay, and to protection against unemployment." This expression conforms to the declaration of Congress in the Employment Act of 1946 expressing the "continuing policy and responsibility of the Federal Government to use all practicable means … to coordinate and utilize all its plans, functions and resources" to create and maintain "conditions under which there will be afforded useful employment opportunities, including self-employment, for those able, willing, and seeking to work …"⁴

I cite these examples simply to show how the Declaration parallels closely our own traditions in matters of human rights.

The Declaration, upon its approval, will become a document of moral force in the world. But it will not be legally binding upon any government. It does not require ratification by government.

I want to emphasize that the completion of the Declaration on Human Rights is only part of the Commission's work. We must have another meeting of the Commission early next year to draft a Covenant on Human Rights and provisions for the implementation of the rights set forth in the Covenant. The Covenant is the proposed treaty on human rights which, upon final approval by the United Nations, must be ratified by Member States to come into force. It thereupon will become a binding international instrument.

The Covenant and the Declaration are both necessary parts of the Commission's program. Completion of the Declaration is therefore a stepping stone to a higher level of achievement in the peaceful relations of man with his fellow man. All members of the Commission worked with real earnestness to complete the Declaration. I have every reason to believe that they will continue to work with that same earnestness on the Covenant.

TPr AERP, FDRL

1. Glendon, 120-21; MD, 21 June 1948.

2. Mallory Browne, "Charter of Rights Is Adopted in U.N.," NYT, 19 June 1948, 1; "Rights Plan Hailed by Mrs. Roosevelt," NYT, 21 June 1948, 9.

3. In 1893, New Zealand became the first nation to recognize woman suffrage. Australia, Finland, and Norway followed shortly thereafter. Not until after World War I did the Soviet Union, Canada, and Britain enact woman suffrage, and many Catholic countries in Europe, including Italy, France, and Belgium, did not do so until after World War II. The first organized call for woman suffrage in the United States came in 1848, when the men and women who met at Seneca Falls, New York, adopted the Declaration of Sentiments. In August 1920, after nearly seventy-five years of political agitation, the three-quarters of states necessary to amend the constitution ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote (OEWH).

4. See also n5 Document 357 for ER's consideration of the Employment Act of 1946 in the "right to work" debate.

Eisenhower, Truman, and Presidential Politics

The movement to replace Truman and draft Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Democratic candidate for president continued to gather steam through the spring and early summer of 1948. Many of those close to ER personally and politically joined the effort, including her sons James and Elliott,¹ Helen Gahagan Douglas, and Chester Bowles. In the following letter, Bowles urges ER to lend the movement her support.