Book Review: A World Made New
In the book “A World Made New” author May Ann Glendon provides a historical narrative on the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and goes on to explain the important role this “international bill of human rights” plays in our world today.
The UDHR “challenged the standing view that a sovereign state’s treatment of its own citizens was the nation’s business and no one else’s.” On the heels of two World Wars and the Holocaust, the world was in desperate need of healing and a change that would prevent it from happening again.
While the Nuremberg Principles addressed crimes of war, there was a need to address peacetime violations of human dignity. Eleanor Roosevelt was asked by President Truman to join the UN Human Rights Commission where she believed she could make an impact around the world on issues relating to women’s rights, poverty, and oppression. Roosevelt became chair of the Commission and led the charge in making the UDHR a reality. She referred to FDR’s “four freedoms” as the foundation for her agenda items in the document that included freedom from want. She recognized that not all nations treated its citizens with dignity and respect, a pillar belief she held which provided a strong foundation for the crafting of the document.
On December 10, 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly and heralded in a new time in the history of human rights. “With its emphasis on dignity, and it’s insistence on the link between freedom and solidarity, the document epitomized the spirit of the prolific constitution and treaty-making activity that followed World War II.”
The UDHR has become known as the digital Magna Carta and provides to this day a declaration of interdependence of people, nations and rights.
If you would like more information on A World Made New, you can find it on Amazon.
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Michael L Schafer