Basic Information
Name: René Samuel Cassin
Nicknames: the Professor, the Free Frenchman
Born: October 5th, 1887
Died: February 20th, 1976
Nationality: French
Hometown: Bayonne, France
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: lawyer, judge, and professor
Education: University of Provence
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: Azaria Cassin and Gabrielle Cassin
Siblings: Fédia, Félicie, and Yvonne
Spouse: Simone Yzombard
Friends: Eleanor Roosevelt, John P. Humphrey, and Charles de Gaulle
Foes: Philippe Pétain, Adolf Hitler, and Hersch Lauterpacht
Analysis
The Great War and the League
It makes sense that René Cassin, freedom fighter and famed Sigmund Freud impersonator, ended up becoming a bigwig at the United Nations. This dude was in the front row for some of the 20th century's most important events, and we're not talking about the Beatles' appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The young Cassin was educated as a lawyer. Like so many people of his generation, World War I interrupted his budding career. Drafted into the French infantry, Cassin was wounded in battle while fighting the Germans, sustaining injuries that affected him for the rest of his life.
After the conclusion of the war, he became one of France's representatives for the League of Nations, focusing on finding ways to reconcile the two sides. Good luck with that.
Vive la Résistance
Despite his—and everyone else's—best efforts, the League of Nations didn't exactly meet its goal. With the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s, the stage for World War II was set, and the league suffered a disastrous demise as the Nazis blitzed all over Europe's peace.
In the first few years of World War II, Germany had the Allies on the run, conquering France and establishing a puppet government in Paris. Cassin fled his home country in 1940 and became an official in the exiled Free French government, helping to draft the new government's charter. Along with Gen. Charles de Gaulle, he became one of the most important leaders of the French resistance movement (source).
After the war, he held a bunch of posts in the re-established French government, eventually becoming a delegate to the brand-new League of Nations 2.0: the United Nations. He was one of the few people who got to see both versions in action.
Cassin was appointed as a member of the human rights drafting committee headed up by Eleanor Roosevelt. Though John Humphrey composed the earliest blueprints, when the document was adopted in 1948, Cassin was officially credited as the primary author (source). It was Cassin who presented the first draft to the General Assembly.
Cassin is said to have compared the UDHR to a Greek temple. The basic rights in Articles 1 and 2 were like the foundation. Political, social, personal, and economic rights were like the columns, and the last articles, dealing with responsibilities to the community, were like the roof (source). If the technology had been around, this would have made for a great PowerPoint presentation.
His career didn't end with the UDHR. Cassin continued working on human rights issues for the rest of his life, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968 for his work. Even Eleanor Roosevelt never got that honor.