New Digital Collection on Drafting of UN Declaration of Human Rights

The UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library in New York City and the Library of the UN Office at Geneva have launched a new digital collection entitled Universal Declaration of Human Rights : An Historical Record of the Drafting Process.

The site provides access to the English and French versions of the meeting records and reports of the various bodies that worked to develop the declaration whose 60th anniversary was celebrated in December 2008:

"From 1946-1948 delegates to the United Nations discussed and drafted an international declaration on the subject of human rights that has become a standard of principles for human rights."

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by General Assembly resolution 217A at its 3rd session in Paris on 10 December 1948."

"This website presents documents in chronological order, arranged according to the various bodies that met to discuss, draft and re-draft the Declaration. There are also brief biographic notes for the members of the Drafting Committee formed by the UN Commission on Human Rights."

McGill law professor John Humphrey was one of the committee members. He wrote the 400-page blueprint that became the foundation of the Declaration.