The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Soviet Law

Dmytro Vovk is a visiting professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. This post is excerpted from an article in the December 2023 special issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Soviets’ Lack of Interest in the Universal Declaration  

The Soviet government seemed not to have any significant interest in the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Soviet member of the UDHR Drafting Committee, Alexandre Bogomolov, played only a passive role in the UDHR drafting process. His associates, including prominent Soviet international-law scholar Vladimir Koretsky, were more active, even though they were more concerned with blocking Western drafters’ proposals and ensuring absolute state sovereignty than with advancing human rights or promoting their universality. As a result, the Soviet Union proposed amendments to virtually every article of the UDHR but abstained from voting for the Declaration.

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Drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Underexplored Figures and Contexts

In December 2023, The Review of Faith & International Affairs published an issue in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The issue explores the foundations and founding figures of the UDHR, focusing on the unique perspectives and convictions UDHR drafters and other contributors brought to the drafting process. The special issue resulted from a July 2023 workshop sponsored by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Christ Church, University of Oxford.

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The Appeal of Dignity: John Peters Humphrey and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Paul Martens is an associate professor of ethics at Baylor University. This post is excerpted from an article in the December 2023 special issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs commemorating the 75th anniversary of the UDHR.

In early 1947, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights embraced a clear mandate to draft an international “bill of rights” that would eventually become the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Seventy-five years later, this document has become rather familiar and ordinary; at the time, it was daringly revolutionary, and its adoption was vehemently contested. Few saw the revolutionary nature of the UDHR as clearly as John Peters Humphrey, the first director of the Division of Human Rights at the United Nations; even fewer had the opportunity to shape its terms and categories. The purpose of the following commentary is, therefore, to recount the unlikely contribution of Humphrey to the UDHR and, especially, its foundational affirmation of human dignity.

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