Eleanor Roosevelt famously said that the UDHR had the potential to be "the international Magna Carta for all men everywhere." That's a pretty ambitious goal.The Magna Carta is one of the world's al...

Some people saw the UDHR as an idealistic, pie-in-the-sky document that couldn't accomplish much except make nations feel angry or guilty. It couldn't force anyone to do anything. But for sheer ide...

From the perspective of human rights, the Soviet Union was arguably the black sheep of the Allies in World War II.Until his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin ruled the country as a de facto dictator. Hi...

Said Rajaie-Khorassani was Iran's representative to the United Nations after a little event called the Iranian Revolution. Just in case you haven't seen the movie Argo, here's a simplified summary:...

In addition to communist countries, South Africa was a noteworthy abstainer from the vote for the UDHR. That's because, in 1948, South Africa's government was mostly based on violating human rights...

The UDHR was an aspirational document. It laid out what U.N. member nations agreed was a universal set of human rights, but it didn't really have any teeth. The International Covenant on Economic,...