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.