A Bit of Good Advice

We've all been there—your friend knows that you'll be up all night if you watch The Shining before bed, but you insist they're wrong. That is, until you're staring wide-eyed at the ceiling convinced there are a couple of creepy twin girls waiting in the hallway.

Eleanor Roosevelt's "On the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" is sort of like that (minus the twin girls, thankfully).

Her speech begins with a lecture/warning, where she addresses issues the Soviet Union has already brought up, and she warns her audience that continuing to rehash old problems will only delay the inevitable approval of the declaration. The world literally can't afford that—everyone is still recovering from World War II, and no one wants to risk another genocide simply because no one recognized good advice when they saw it.

But do they ever listen? Well, sort of.

The General Assembly decided Roosevelt has a point, and they approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the next day. However, certain countries—namely those that favored communist ideologies—abstained from voting, and many of them ended up requiring humanitarian aid from the United Nations when the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s.

That's why you should always listen to good advice—both when it comes to Kubrick movies at bedtime and adopting international human rights declarations.

How It Breaks Down

Section 1: Lines 1-7

Time to Seal the Deal

As much fun as it has been to draft the document, Roosevelt is ready to give the Universal Declaration of Human Rights an official stamp of approval…even if everyone doesn't get exactly what they want.

Section 2: Lines 8-30

The Soviets Keep Suggesting Changes…but Most Other People Think Everything Looks A-Okay

The Soviets need to chill when it comes to making the same suggestions over and over again. The committee recognizes that the Soviet bloc and the Western world have different ideas of what equality means and how to go about achieving it, but waiting for another session to approve the declaration isn't going to magically make things better.

Section 3: Lines 31-43

It's Not Law, It's a Guideline

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights isn't international law, so there's room for interpretation. But Article 30 was written in order to keep everyone in line.

Section 4: Lines 44-59

An Important Step in the Right Direction

For the first time in human history, everyone is coming together to talk about the basic human rights all people deserve. That's super significant, and while there's still work to be done, the declaration is a really good start.