Charles Dukes: A Prisoner of Conscience Who Helped Draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Fearghas O’Beara is head of unit at the European Parliamentary Research Service and a doctoral student at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy. 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.

The Former-Felons’ Feast

On the evening of 9 January 1924, a group of 19 ex-convicts—both men and women—gathered within the confines of the British Houses of Parliament in London. This motley crew were not plotting a re-enactment of Guy Fawkes’s attempt to blow up Parliament three centuries earlier, but they were all purveyors of highly explosive ideas—ideas that the British Establishment of the early twentieth century decided merited being put behind bars.

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Colonel William Roy Hodgson: Australia’s Forgotten Contributor to the Development of International Human Rights

Renae Barker is a senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia Law School. 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.

Colonel William Roy Hodgson is a forgotten figure from the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—forgotten not just at the international level but also in his home country of Australia, where even in his own lifetime “his presence was virtually ignored” [1] when he finally returned to Australia at the end of a long and distinguished diplomatic career.  In the year of the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), it is time his contribution and legacy were rediscovered.

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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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