The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948

1. Drafting and adoption

The Commission on Human Rights, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, prepared the text. René Cassin of France, Charles Malik of Lebanon, Peng Chun Chang of China and John Humphrey of the UN Secretariat did much of the drafting; Hansa Mehta of India secured the gender-neutral “all human beings” in Article 1. The General Assembly adopted it on 10 December 1948 at Paris as resolution 217 A (III), by 48 votes to none, with 8 abstentions (the Soviet bloc, Saudi Arabia and South Africa). 10 December is observed as Human Rights Day.

2. Structure and contents

A Preamble and thirty Articles. The Preamble begins with “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace, and proclaims the Declaration “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations”.

(a) General principles: Articles 1 and 2. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights (Art. 1). Everyone is entitled to the rights without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status (Art. 2).

(b) Civil and political rights: Articles 3 to 21.

• Art. 3: life, liberty and security of person.
• Art. 4: no slavery or servitude. Art. 5: no torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
• Art. 6: recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Art. 7: equality before the law and equal protection. Art. 8: an effective remedy by national tribunals for violation of fundamental rights.
• Art. 9: no arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Art. 10: a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal. Art. 11: presumption of innocence, and no retroactive criminal offences or penalties.
• Art. 12: no arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor attacks on honour and reputation.
• Art. 13: freedom of movement and residence within a state, and the right to leave any country, including one’s own, and to return. Art. 14: the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution. Art. 15: the right to a nationality.
• Art. 16: the right of men and women of full age to marry and found a family, with free and full consent; the family is entitled to protection.
• Art. 17: the right to own property; no arbitrary deprivation.
• Art. 18: freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change religion. Art. 19: freedom of opinion and expression. Art. 20: peaceful assembly and association; no one may be compelled to belong to an association.
• Art. 21: the right to take part in government, equal access to public service, and periodic and genuine elections by universal and equal suffrage and secret vote.

(c) Economic, social and cultural rights: Articles 22 to 27.

• Art. 22: social security and the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights.
• Art. 23: work, free choice of employment, just and favourable conditions, protection against unemployment, equal pay for equal work, just remuneration, and the right to form and join trade unions.
• Art. 24: rest and leisure, reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
• Art. 25: a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and social services; special care for motherhood and childhood.
• Art. 26: education, free and compulsory at least in the elementary stages; parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education.
• Art. 27: to participate in cultural life, share in scientific advancement, and protection of the moral and material interests of authors.

(d) Order, duties and limits: Articles 28 to 30. Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights can be realised (Art. 28). Everyone has duties to the community; rights may be limited only by law and only for securing due recognition of the rights of others and meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society (Art. 29). Nothing in the Declaration implies a right to destroy any of the rights it sets out (Art. 30).

3. Legal status and effects

When adopted, the UDHR was a General Assembly resolution. Under the Charter the Assembly makes recommendations; it does not legislate. Eleanor Roosevelt told the Assembly that the Declaration was not a treaty and not a statement of law or legal obligation. Its legal effect has nonetheless grown in five ways.

• Authoritative interpretation of the Charter. Articles 55 and 56 oblige members to promote “human rights and fundamental freedoms” without defining them. The UDHR is treated as the definition. The Proclamation of Teheran (1968) declared that the Declaration “constitutes an obligation for the members of the international community”.
• Customary international law. Many of its provisions, at least the prohibitions of slavery, torture, arbitrary killing, prolonged arbitrary detention and systematic racial discrimination, are now accepted as custom binding on all states (see the note on origin and development).
• Basis of binding treaties. The ICCPR and ICESCR convert its Articles into treaty obligations, and every later human rights treaty refers to it in its preamble.
• Model for constitutions and courts. Many post-1948 constitutions borrow from it. India’s Part III and Part IV track Articles 3 to 21 and 22 to 27 closely, and Indian courts cite it in interpreting fundamental rights.
• Standard for the UN machinery. The Universal Periodic Review assesses every state against the Charter and the UDHR, among other instruments, whether or not the state is party to any treaty.

4. The UDHR in Indian courts

In Chairman, Railway Board v. Chandrima Das, 2000 INSC 38, (2000) 2 SCC 465, a Bangladeshi woman was gang-raped by railway employees in a room at Howrah station. The Railways argued that she was a foreign national and that the State was not liable for the private acts of its employees. The Supreme Court relied on the UDHR, which it described as the “Moral Code of Conduct” adopted by the General Assembly, and on its Articles 3, 5, 7 and 9, to hold that the right to life in Article 21 extends to every person, citizen or not. Compensation awarded by the Calcutta High Court was upheld.

The Declaration was also used in Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, 1997 INSC 604, (1997) 6 SCC 241, along with CEDAW, and its Article 12 informed the privacy judgment in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, 2017 INSC 801, (2017) 10 SCC 1.

5. Importance in brief

• The first worldwide statement of rights agreed by states of different cultures and systems.
• It covers both civil-political and economic-social rights, and treats them as one set.
• It is the foundation of the International Bill of Rights and of every later instrument.
• It is the most translated document in the world and the standard against which all states are measured.
• Weaknesses: no enforcement machinery of its own, no right of individual petition, and no mention of self-determination or minority rights.

How this is examined

June 2025: “Explain the importance and contents of the UDHR” (10 marks). January 2026: “Explain the legal effects of the UDHR” (10 marks). February 2025 and August 2024 set it as a 6-mark note. For contents, use the four groups in section 2. For legal effect, use section 3 and the note, then Chandrima Das. For the short note, adoption date and vote, the four groups in one line each, and the status point.