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A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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Professor Glendon vividly and lucidly elaborates the people and events whose obscure work yielded perhaps the single most important document of the second half of the 20th Century.

For those of us who are privileged to live under the blanket of freedom, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights might not be understood to be the beacon of hope and freedom that is has become to many millions around the world who live in conditions of extraordinary disadvantage. This book is a gift in that it provides with a detailed narrative of the places, people, and events which conspired to deliver the UDHR at a moment in history when it was so desperately needed.

"A World Made New" isn't really about Eleanor Roosevelt, though she does have a big part in the story. Instead, the book chronicles the diplomacy that led to the 1948 adoption of the world's cornerstone human rights document, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The book also analyses the Declaration's role in shaping a global "rights consciousness" that has slowly but surely had a big impact on international politics and state behavior. The writing is crisp, the story fascinating, and the legal explanations crystal-clear. It's a nifty, intelligent book.

The author is a Harvard law prof who wants to teach us how to think about human rights in the modern world. She has two key messages. First, criticism that the whole notion of human rights reflects a "Western bias" is misguided; countries from around the world negotiated the Declaration, and every major rights tradition is reflected in the text. Second, the range of rights embraced by the Declaration far exceeds traditional Anglo-American notions of limited government and individual freedoms; instead, the Declaration is built on concepts of human dignity and flourishing that cannot be realized without education, health care, workplace justice, and other social protections.

Editorial Comment: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has influenced constitutions and human rights laws all over the world, from South Africa and post-war Europe to emerging democracies in Latin America and the former USSR. However, it is almost unknown in the United States, despite our decisive role in its creation. Of course, Americans don't know their own Constitution, either. Given the low level of legal/rights literacy in America, it's no wonder that global human rights leadership has largely passed to other countries. A people who can't be roused by the disclosure of White House-sanctioned torture camps has no capacity to lead others on these issues.

This is a fascinating book on the formation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from a historical, political, as well as ethical perspective, and very well written. It shows the involvement of individuals from many countries, western and non-western, in the formation of this document and refutes the idea that "human rights" is strictly a western concept. I was in awe of Eleanor Roosevelt after reading the account of her multinational efforts, but also inspired by these other leaders who also made significant contributions to it's formation but who are now unknown to most.

A marvelous account of the formulation and development of the `Universal Declaration of Human Rights'.

It really had its gestation in 1941 during the Roosevelt - Churchill meeting at Placentia Bay, off Newfoundland, during the very dark days of World War II. At that stage the spread of German Nazism seemed unstoppable. The Atlantic Charter was made with `Roosevelt's freedoms' - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

One could say that the `Universal Declaration of Human Rights' is composed of these four main pillars.

The author gives us a history of the evolution of the `Universal Declaration of Human Rights' providing us with its' different draft forms. She also gives us excellent and vivid portrayals of the main protagonists involved. We can say they represent a wide range of humanity - Rene Cassin from France, Charles Malik from Lebanon, P.C. Chang from China, John P. Humphrey from Canada, Housa Meht from India and several others.

Orchestrating and pushing through this agenda was Eleanor Roosevelt. Her prestige, her boundless energy and her unique ability to encompass and empathize with humanity at large made her able to move this `Declaration' to approval at the U.N. General Assembly.
This was no small task.
It is indeed Eleanor Roosevelt's finest hour. It gives her a lasting legacy that mankind should remember for all time.

The author also gives a very readable description of the meaning of the Declaration - deciphering for us the battles to make it more readable and acceptable to all members of the various committees who participated in its' writing.

It was passed by the U.N. in 1948; only the Soviet bloc countries and Saudi Arabia abstained from voting. It is not a binding or legal document, but it is a goal that all countries should strive for. Countries today are judged by their adherence to it and many new countries add parts of it to their constitution. Human rights groups, such as Amnesty International refer to it in their evaluations.

The author acknowledges that it is not perfect, and it creators said as much. However she argues persuasively that human rights are universal. In a fine example near the end of the book a Chinese refugee points out to another delegate at a human rights convention - "If you were to voice dissent from the prevailing view in China, you would end up in a jail, and there you would soon be asking for your rights, without worrying about whether they were `American' or `Chinese' ".

The `Universal Declaration of Human Rights' is for mankind. As another dissident pointed out `rights are for everyone, not just westerners'.

A splendid account of Eleanor Roosevelt after FDR's death, when she was the guiding force on the UN committee that crafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration is already a foundation to a body of international human-rights law, a foundation that has steadily grown in importance over the last half century. The book does justice to it, and to her.

The title is from her nightly prayer: "Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find, forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. ... Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of a world made new."

Amen.