Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

The common standard of achievement that seeded global rights constitutionalism.

Overview

Adopted by the UN General Assembly December 10, 1948 without dissent, the Universal Declaration proclaimed thirty articles of rights, civil, political, economic, social, and cultural, as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and nations. Drafted by a committee including Rene Cassin, Peng Chun Chang, and Eleanor Roosevelt, it transformed natural rights claims into positive international law through the two 1966 covenants and regional conventions. Its preambular recognition of the inherent dignity of the human family became the master text of postwar constitutionalism, echoed in dozens of national bills of rights.