How we cite our quotes: (Line Number)
Quote #1
The long and meticulous study and debate of which this Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the product means it reflects the composite views of the many men and governments who have contributed to its formation. (1)
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was designed to guarantee all people basic freedoms simply because they are human beings, and creating it was no easy task.
Lots of folks came together and had to work through their different opinions to find some sort of common ground. When you think about it, the very act of creating the document was a basic right. All humans everywhere should be free to determine how they're treated, and participating gave all member nations that freedom.
Quote #2
It is a Declaration of the basic principles of human rights and freedoms, to be stamped with the approval of the General Assembly by formal vote of its members, and to serve as a common standard of achievement for all peoples of all nations. (43)
Too often in the past, certain basic human rights—the rights to life and liberty, for example—have been viewed as privileges for a certain few. That's how millions of people died in the Holocaust and how millions more throughout history have been victims of dictatorial governments.
Any type of government that doesn't protect its people isn't doing its job, and the declaration was trying to prevent those governments from wreaking havoc on innocent people.
Quote #3
We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This Universal Declaration of Human Rights may well become the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere. We hope its proclamation by the General Assembly will be an event comparable to the proclamation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man by the French people in 1789, the adoption of the Bill of Rights by the people of the United States, and the adoption of comparable declarations of different times in other countries. (44-46)
We bet you had already heard of all three of those documents before you read (or listened to) this speech. That's because they're all significant to the fight for equality and human rights. Eleanor Roosevelt mentions them in "On the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" because she believes that this, too, will be remembered forever as a significant moment in human history.
Ideally, the declaration would mean that human rights violations around the world would stop happening, and everyone would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, we know that's not quite what happened.
Quote #4
This must be taken as testimony of our common aspiration first voiced in the Charter of the United Nations to lift men everywhere to a higher standard of life and to a greater enjoyment of freedom. Man's desire for peace lies behind this Declaration. (48-49)
There were 58 members of the United Nations when the Commission on Human Rights was working on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That's a whole lot of people, with lots of different ideas, but one thing they all had in common was the desire to avoid another worldwide conflict like World War II. The only way to do that was to dictate, once and for all, the basic rights all people deserve because no one would be truly free until things like the right to life stopped being privileges.
Quote #5
This Declaration is based upon the spiritual fact that man must have freedom in which to develop his full stature and through common effort to raise the level of human dignity. We have much to do to fully achieve and to assure the rights set forth in this Declaration. But having them put before us with the moral backing of 58 nations will be a great step forward. (54-56)
You all know by now that nothing in life is easy—at least, not anything really worthwhile. And that was especially true when it came to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It wasn't perfect on a number of levels, and it wasn't international law, but what's important is that for the first time in human history, all the countries of the United Nations were fighting for the same thing. The declaration was pretty simple at its core: all people deserve basic rights, no matter what. It didn't automatically guarantee they'd have them, but it provided a foundation for each country to build on.