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Abstract
This essay submits that events preceding and leading to the establishment of the United Nations, in the 1940s, saw the emergence of foundational human rights ideas that have shaped the international order ever since. While the major wartime powers were the sponsoring actors, there were strong demands for justice and equality in countries of the South. It was a combination of Northern, Southern and NGO contributions that shaped the content of the normative human rights framework. No country came to this with fully clean hands. The leading powers sought to shield themselves from colonialism, gulags and racial segregation but had to agree to principles and norms that would triumph in the end. Southern representatives, some partly educated in the West but mostly taking their essence from their own soils, argued for high principles and norms, and then many proceeded to violate them once they had gained control of their countries. Many Latin American leaders advanced lofty principles while presiding over exploitative feudal societies at home. The gulf between principles and practice continues in our times, with numerous violations of human rights worldwide.
Notes
1. Normand and Zaidi, Human Rights at the UN, 20.
2. Moyn, The Last Utopia; Moyn, Human Rights; Burke, Decolonization; Glendon, A World Made New; and Iriye, The Human Rights Revolution.
3. Zaidi and Normand, Human Rights at the UN, 23.
4. For a discussion of these and other ideas, see Jolly et al., UN Ideas.
5. Lauren, The Evolution of International Human Rights.
6. Burgers, “The Road to San Francisco.”
7. Ibid., 470.
8. Mazower, “The Strange Triumph,” 380.
9. Mazower, “The Strange Triumph,” 385–386.
10. Mazower, “The Strange Triumph,” 386.
11. See Mishra, From the Ruins of Empire.
12. Best et al., International History, 206–207.
13. Ibid.
14. Normand and Zaidi, Human Rights at the UN, 89.
15. Russel, A History of the United Nations Charter, 29.
16. Romulo and Day, Forty Years, 71–72.
17. Normand and Zaidi, Human Rights at the UN, 83.
18. Normand and Zaidi, Human Rights at the UN, 94.
19. Normand and Zaidi, Human Rights at the UN, 389–390.
20. Normand and Zaidi, Human Rights at the UN, 92.
21. Fukuyama, Political Order and Political Decay, 361.
22. Hildenbrand, Dumbarton Oaks, 234–242.
23. See Dalton, Power over People, 132–134.
24. Borgwardt, A New Deal, 29. Roosevelt’s speechwriter, Robert Sherwood, noted that, according to Borgwardt, ‘it was not long before the people of India, Burma, Malaya and Indonesia were beginning to ask if the Atlantic Charter extended also to the Pacific and to Asia in general’.
25. Selassie, “Appeal to the League,” 10.
26. A/PV.183, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3073.
27. A/PV. 182, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3058.
28. Borgwardt, A New Deal, 8–9.
29. A/PV. 182, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3056.
30. A/PV. 180, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3034.
31. A/PV. 182, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3054–3055.
32. Russel, A History of the United Nations Charter, 568–569.
33. A/PV.180, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3023.
34. A/PV.189, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3031.
35. A/PV.181, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3043–3044.
36. A/PV.181, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3050.
37. A/PV.180, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3028.
38. A/PV.183, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3080–3081.
39. Sohn and Buergenthal, International Protection, 510–511.
40. Ibid.
41. ‘Throughout its history, the development of international law has been influenced by the requirements of international life.’ International Court of Justice, “Reparations for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, 11 April 1949,” ICJ Reports, 1949, 174 at 178.
42. General Assembly Resolution 35/176, December 15, 1980.
43. General Assembly Resolution 35/174, December 15, 1980, para 4. See similarly General Assembly Resolution 41/131, December 4, 1984, paras 12–14.
44. See Report of the International Law Commission Covering its Second Session, June 5–29 July, 1950, UN document A/1316, 11–14. See also Borgwardt, A New Deal.
45. See the Yearbook of the International Law Commission, vol. II, 1954, 134.
46. ECOSOC, Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/SR. 14, February 5, 1947, 3–4.
47. A/PV.183, in Schabas, The Universal Declaration, 3080–3081.
48. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN General Assembly Resolution 217A(III), December 10, 1948.
49. Lauterpacht, An International Bill, 115.
50. “Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South-West Africa), Advisory Opinion of 21 June, 1971,” ICJ Reports, 1971, 16.
51. On this, see Best et al., International History, 405.
52. Goodrich et al., Charter of the United Nations, 30.
53. Malik, The Challenge of Human Rights, 13–15.
54. ECOSOC, Commission on Human Rights E/CN.4/SR 2, January 27, 1947, 2.
55. ECOSOC, Commission on Human Rights E/CN.4/SR 2, 3.
56. Russel, A History of the United Nations Charter, 568–569.
57. See, generally, Stone, The League of Nations.
58. Mazower, “Strange Triumph,” 379–398.
59. Mazower, “Strange Triumph,” 388.
60. Ibid.
61. Mazower, “Strange Triumph,” 388-389.
62. See ECOSOC, Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/Sub.3/133, August 2, 1951.
63. Fukuyama, Political Order and Political Decay.