‘If Only for a Day’: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Anniversary Commemoration and International Human Rights Law

Abstract

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is familiar to international human rights lawyers worldwide. Celebrations of its adoption have included commemorative sessions held in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly during milestone anniversary years. Scholarship has not yet considered these sessions together, exploring what may be learned about the UDHR in this UN body as a result. This is the work that the present article undertakes. It finds that, when considered collectively, anniversary days in the General Assembly assist in creating a picture of the UDHR as a legal text in time. This reveals how commemorative activity has engaged with the UDHR in fluid ways and also in ways that stress or demonstrate aspects of continuity. From this analysis, it is possible to deepen understanding of engagements with the UDHR throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and anniversary days emerge as an under-utilized resource for international human rights lawyers.

1. INTRODUCTION

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a central document in international human rights law. As the UDHR has matured over the past seven decades, anniversaries of its adoption have been widely commemorated. A significant part of these commemorations consists of activities taking place within the formal domain of international human rights law itself, when UDHR anniversaries are engaged by United Nations (UN) bodies and fora. Some of these anniversary commemorations have been considered in recent scholarship.¹ However, work has not yet been undertaken to consider UN commemorative moments together across the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, exploring what may be learned about the UDHR and its engagement as a result. This analysis holds significance for work on the history of international human rights law²—examining an under-explored historical resource—for scholarly literature on the UDHR itself³—exploring engagements with the UDHR in UN fora, a subject that has not featured extensively in work to date—and for legal scholarship more generally—offering further insights into a document which holds importance for lawyers across the world. This is the work that the present article undertakes. To do so, it will focus on UN General Assembly commemorative sessions held on or around Human Rights Day during the UDHR’s milestone anniversary years. These sessions are one significant part of UN UDHR commemorative activities and have taken place in 5-year intervals from 1958 onwards. In the article, reports from these sessions are explored up until the UDHR’s seventieth anniversary in 2018. On these occasions in the General Assembly, states, UN actors and other invited speakers focus on the UDHR and discussion turns—‘if only for a day’⁴—to this document in the context of the wider international human rights law landscape. A rich and under-explored resource thus emerges for those interested in this area of law.

In undertaking this work, the article investigates two overarching questions. First, what can be revealed as characterising discussion at the UDHR’s commemorative sessions across the decades? Second, what can be drawn from this exploration to assist in more deeply understanding the UDHR and its engagement in this forum throughout international human rights law’s history? In examining these questions, the article demonstrates that the commemorative sessions can be analysed collectively to assist in creating a picture of the Declaration as a legal text in time. In doing so, the potential of singular anniversary days, reflected on together, to help envisage the UDHR in a broader temporal landscape comes into view. This overarching analysis fits with recent work demonstrating the potential of temporal lenses to enhance knowledge of international human rights law.⁵ Such work has explored this area of law’s internal temporalities as well as its relationship to external concepts and patterns of time. In apprehending a legal text in time via consideration of individual anniversary days, the article takes a temporal approach that adds to existing literature on international human rights law and time. It connects with ideas of chronology that will be familiar to the reader,⁶ but foregrounds days, a measure of time not yet extensively explored, to examine law’s development.

The picture that emerges from collective consideration of anniversary days is of use for lawyers and scholars, deepening understanding of what has characterized engagement with the UDHR in the General Assembly throughout the development of this area of law. The commemorative sessions reveal changing contexts, thematic rights issues and structural developments within this legal system throughout its history. As might be expected, the sessions demonstrate engagement with the UDHR in fluid ways as well as in continuous ways across time. The article locates and categorizes these two approaches. The UDHR appears as engaged in fluid and responsive ways alongside, and to speak to, changing contexts, issues and developments. When considered together, commemorative anniversary days also reveal engagements that stress or demonstrate aspects that remain continuous and steadfast regarding the UDHR and its identity across time. These include its foundational status, work to reinforce defining aspects of the UDHR and human rights internationally, as well as enduring points of discussion and debate. The coexisting fluidity and continuity that is evident from collective review and analysis of anniversary commemorative sessions appears important to more deeply understand engagements with the UDHR in this UN forum throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

To carry out this exploration, discussion is broken down into three sections. The article begins in Section 2 by providing foundational context on the UDHR and its origins in international human rights law. This section then moves to detail work to establish regular anniversary commemorations for the UDHR within the UN. Following this, in Section 3, focus turns to the first question identified above, considering the General Assembly’s UDHR commemorative sessions from 1958 to 2018. This section examines these sessions as they have taken place in 5-year intervals, identifying topics, themes and points of discussion arising. In Section 4, focus turns to the article’s second question, examining the overarching picture that emerges from bringing anniversary days into view collectively in this way. Analysis demonstrates how the commemorative sessions reveal engagement with the UDHR and its identity in fluid ways as well as in ways that stress or demonstrate continuity, providing further detail on the nature of each. The article concludes by advancing the significance of the UDHR’s anniversary days considered together as an under-utilized resource for ongoing work in the area of international human rights law and signposting towards possibilities for future research.

2. THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND UNITED NATIONS ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION

The history of the UDHR will be familiar to many working within human rights law internationally. This history is closely connected to the creation of the UN itself. In the early decades of the twentieth century, discussion of human rights as a concept was building in public discourse. This was evidenced in events, publications and public statements, including Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘Four Freedoms’ speech delivered in January 1941.⁷ Focus on inherent rights protections for the individual was advanced further by the events of the Second World War. Against this backdrop, the first legal discussion of an international bill of human rights emerged in the 1940s, written by Hersch Lauterpacht and published in 1945, coinciding with the establishment of the UN.⁸ Given these developments and broader context, as Johannes Morsink comments, ‘when the United Nations was founded in San Francisco in 1945 there was tremendous pressure on the delegates to that founding conference to include an international bill of rights in the Charter’.⁹ While the UN Charter in the end did not include such a bill, it did contain seven references to human rights, extending beyond the Covenant of the League of Nations in this regard,¹⁰ and also mandated the creation of a Commission on Human Rights. This body, it was understood, would be responsible for subsequently producing a bill of rights.

In 1946, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) established the Commission on Human Rights and requested that it commence work on the bill.¹¹ The Commission met for the first time in January 1947 to begin drafting the document that would become the bill’s first component: the UDHR. Following almost 2 years of work, the Declaration was presented to the General Assembly on 10 December 1948. It was adopted by 48 votes to none, with eight states abstaining.¹² While not legally binding in nature—an outcome that followed much discussion in the Commission¹³—the UDHR was designed, as outlined in its Preamble, to be a ‘common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations’. It was primed to ‘become the Magna Carta of all mankind’, as the Commission’s Chairperson, Eleanor Roosevelt envisaged, ¹⁴ and to go on to ‘set the stage for a system of international accountability that has been unparalleled in history’.¹⁵ Today, any discussion of the international human rights framework will incorporate reference to the UDHR. Much scholarly literature exists on creation of the UDHR and the work of the Commission in this regard. For example, the drafting history of the Declaration has been widely discussed,¹⁶ as have the contributions of key drafting figures.¹⁷ Wider literature has explored the philosophical underpinnings of the UDHR,¹⁸ and the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in its development and distribution,¹⁹ while other scholars have examined in detail the 30 articles that were agreed upon in the final document.²⁰

Given the focus of the present work on the UDHR’s anniversary commemorations, it is necessary to investigate what occurred after the events outlined above to celebrate the UDHR and observe its significance in the years to come. Following the Declaration’s adoption in 1948, attention at the UN soon turned to ways to effectively mark the date that the UDHR came into being in the longer term. Two years later, on 4 December 1950, the General Assembly considered the issue, stating that ‘the anniversary of this event should be appropriately celebrated in all countries as part of a common effort to bring the Declaration to the attention of the peoples of the world’.²¹ All states and interested organizations were thus invited to mark 10 December each year as Human Rights Day. Since this time, Human Rights Day has become a standing observance in the UN calendar, marked via a co-ordinated programme of events, meetings, publications and other educational efforts linked to the UDHR and human rights internationally. In 1966, an additional element was added to Human Rights Day celebrations with the establishment of the UN Prizes in the Field of Human Rights.²² Created by the General Assembly to honour individuals—and, later, organizations—who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in relation to the promotion and protection of human rights, the Prizes were to be awarded on Human Rights Day from 1968 onwards in not more than 5-year intervals. To date, over 60 Human Rights Prizes have been awarded.

While the UN has noted Human Rights Day since 1950, the first celebration of a major milestone anniversary for the UDHR appears on the Declaration’s 10th anniversary in 1958. From this date onwards, dedicated commemorative sessions have been held in the General Assembly every 5 years, coinciding with the document’s milestone years. On these occasions, states, UN figures and other invited guests come together on or around 10 December to reflect on the UDHR and, in the course of discussion, on contemporary progress and challenges in the area of international human rights law more generally. Since 1968, the UN Human Rights Prizes have also been awarded as part of these sessions. By 1978, the UDHR commemorative sessions were characterized by the General Assembly President as a familiar ritual within the UN system, one that stimulates ‘pause to reflect on the destiny of that Declaration which is so intrinsically bound up with our Organization and… [to] single out for the admiration of mankind a few individuals and institutions that have struggled for its implementation’.²³ This activity in the General Assembly from 1958 has been accompanied by wider work in the Commission on Human Rights and later the Human Rights Council, the Third Committee, ECOSOC and other UN bodies supporting and planning for UDHR anniversary commemorations. In addition to states and UN agencies, civil society stakeholders and NGOs have also been part of these commemorations at the UN and play an important role in consultations on planning as well as contributing to, or on occasions countering, the anniversary narrative.²⁴ A wider web of activity has, therefore, accompanied the General Assembly sessions and informed how these meetings take place alongside broader celebratory plans during anniversary years.

Although the General Assembly’s UDHR commemorative sessions have been consistent from the late 1950s onwards, space exists to further consider these events. In particular, to reflect on the sessions together and examine what may emerge from such a holistic, longitudinal analysis in relation to how the UDHR has been engaged in this forum. Neither literature on the history of international human rights law, nor on the UDHR itself, has apprehended the commemorative sessions in this way. In the former field, some mid-twentieth-century sessions have been reflected on, offering a starting point for wider, collective analysis.²⁵ Scholarship in the latter field has, as noted above, examined the development of the UDHR, as well as exploring its impact at international and national levels.²⁶ It has not, however, extensively considered how the UDHR has been engaged at the UN, as a key location for international human rights law, via events such as the commemorative sessions. In this respect, the present article makes a significant contribution, expanding work in both these areas. For lawyers and scholars interested in international human rights law and its foundational text, the UDHR’s anniversary days taking place every 5 years hold potential to deepen understandings of the Declaration as a legal text in time. Individual days reflected on together assist in uncovering a broader temporal account of the UDHR. In other words, singular anniversary moments can be analysed to reveal longer-term patterns across the past and present. From the picture that emerges, the anniversary occasions reveal points of fluidity as well as the stressing of continuity in engagements with the Declaration and its identity in this UN forum which stand to be further examined. In the section to follow attention turns to examine the General Assembly commemorative sessions chronologically, identifying some of the main themes and topics that have characterized discussion of the UDHR and human rights more generally at them. This cannot claim to be fully exhaustive, but aims to provide an effective thematic overview of sessions for the reader. This is followed by section four, which analyses the picture of engagement with the UDHR across time that comes into view.

3. THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS' COMMEMORATIVE SESSIONS 1958-2018: A LEGAL TEXT IN TIME

A. The 1950s: The Declaration’s Significance, Early Discussion on Reform and the International Covenants

Following discussion in the Commission on Human Rights and ECOSOC,²⁷ as part of a wider programme of anniversary activities to demonstrate the significance and unique character of the Declaration and to make better known the rights and freedoms within it,²⁸ the General Assembly held its first special meeting to commemorate the UDHR’s 10th anniversary in 1958.²⁹ Statements were made by Eleanor Roosevelt; R.S.S. Gunewardene, Chair of the Commission; and Charles Malik, General Assembly President. Statements were also delivered on behalf of René Cassin and Felixberto Serrano, the latter a former Chair of the Commission on Human Rights. With participation from Roosevelt, Malik and Cassin, the event included three individuals who were integral to the document’s drafting. A number of themes are detectable from the session. First, the origins and influences of the UDHR are discussed. Among the origins referenced by speakers are the American, French and Russian Revolutions as well as Magna Carta and habeas corpus.³⁰ This begins focus on what will be a recurrent topic. Across later anniversary sessions, Greek, French and English philosophy, Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the Enlightenment are also referred to in recollections of the Declaration’s origins and influences.³¹ Alongside this, the UDHR’s historical or contextual origins are brought into view. This appears via the close connection that is foregrounded with the events of the 1940s and the Second World War. Throughout the session, reference is made to the Atlantic Charter and Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech,³² the atrocities that brought states together to prevent their repetition,³³ as well as the contribution of states in establishing and realising the aims of the UN Charter post-1945.³⁴

At this first session, a strong focus was additionally placed on the legal significance and impact that the UDHR has had since 1948. This is evident in reference to international conventions on refugees, stateless persons, the political rights of women, the abolition of forced labour, the nationality of married women, the abolition of slavery and discrimination in respect of employment which drew from and built on the UDHR.³⁵ Attention is also drawn to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Treaty of San Francisco, the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany and Constitutions of Haiti, Indonesia, Libya and Eritrea, among others, as further legal documents influenced by the Declaration.³⁶ The UDHR emerges on its 10th anniversary as a document that has already made an impact at international and domestic legal levels. The UDHR’s significance and legitimacy more generally are foregrounded through introduction of what will come to be another recurrent topic in the sessions: universality. The UDHR is described as capturing the hopes and aspirations of people worldwide,³⁷ as well as a document that is ‘common to all the peoples of the earth’.³⁸ Universality additionally comes to the fore in the reminder of the wide support that the Declaration received from states across the world in its adoption.³⁹

While the overarching atmosphere in 1958 undoubtedly appeared as one of celebration, a further theme of discussion that can be highlighted is reflection on UN human rights work and procedures at the time. This includes discussion of the Commission on Human Rights and encompasses, for example, comment on individual cases of human rights violation which lay outside the Commission’s mandate.⁴⁰ Suggestion for reform is also made. One example is a new procedure for effective investigation of communications, with different views being advanced on this.⁴¹ In terms of UN human rights work more generally, as the 1958 commemorative session took place against the backdrop of activity to draft what would become the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, it is unsurprising to see discussion on this contemporary development. Continuing work on the Covenants is noted, alongside the hope that they would represent ongoing growth of human rights.⁴² Also raised by speakers is the issue of delay in drafting these documents, which was a topic of discussion during this period.⁴³ Beyond these overarching themes which appear throughout the session, the contribution of NGOs, the rights of women, racial discrimination, poverty and freedom of thought and expression are some of the other topics highlighted in remarks.⁴⁴

Overall, this session gives a sense of the growing significance of the UDHR in its first 10 years. A balance was struck between idealism and realism in the fulfilment of the Declaration’s principles during this time,⁴⁵ another theme that will continue to arise in later years. Closing the session, Malik foregrounded the future of the UDHR, commenting that ‘at its 10th anniversary today we have rightly rejoiced; but at its twentieth and its fiftieth anniversaries there will be greater rejoicing still’.⁴⁶ Ending the first major anniversary day in the General Assembly, this observation turned out to be correct in predicting the tenor of anniversary days to come.

B. The 1960s: Non-discrimination, Newly Independent States and Tehran

Five years later, the fifteenth anniversary of the UDHR was celebrated in 1963. Preparations again took place across the UN to plan and prepare for the occasion, including creating a programme of events involving international organizations, national governments and NGOs.⁴⁷ The commemorative session took place alongside this wider programme of work to mark the occasion which aimed to ‘stimulate interest in the Declaration and promote observance and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms’.⁴⁸ At the event, the Chairs of the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Third Committee, the five permanent members of the Security Council, the Chairs of the regional groups and the UN Secretary-General were invited to make remarks. This was the first milestone anniversary following the death of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962, and tribute was paid to her by speakers.⁴⁹ Picking up where the 1958 meeting left off, the session began on a celebratory note with a statement from the General Assembly President remarking that the UDHR ‘has grown ever stronger in the fifteen years of its existence’.⁵⁰

Throughout discussion an increased level of attention is dedicated to human rights issues of the day. These issues include poverty and economic and social development, racial discrimination and apartheid—connecting with the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination adopted the month previous—religious oppression, technological development, protection of refugees—linking to World Refugee Year, 1959–60—slavery and disarmament.⁵¹ These issues are related back to the UDHR and its overarching vision. This anniversary occasion also coincided with decolonization and the emergence of newly independent states, a development which would be of significance at the UN.⁵² This development is noted and tied to realization of the UDHR’s provisions.⁵³ As in 1958, work on the International Covenants remained ongoing in 1963. The hope for completion of this work was expressed,⁵⁴ and the length of the drafting process noted.⁵⁵ Alongside these topics, reiteration of the universality of the UDHR emerged once again. This included the comment of the Chairman of the Third Committee that ‘the Declaration can be applied in all countries, whatever social or political systems they may have, whatever degree of development they may have reached, and whatever beliefs, religions or traditions they may adhere to’.⁵⁶ This event, therefore, demonstrates themes that are familiar from the 10th anniversary, but crucial particularities arise related to broader global contexts in the early 1960s period and indicating towards many of the issues that will engage the attention of the UN for the incoming years.

In 1968, the UDHR celebrated its twentieth anniversary, an event which followed two significant developments. The first was the establishment of the UN Human Rights Prizes. Manuel Bianchi, Albert Luthuli, Mehrangiz Manouchehrian and Petr Emelyanovich Nedbailo were the first recipients alongside two key figures in the UDHR’s drafting—Cassin and, posthumously, Roosevelt.⁵⁷ The second development was the decision made a number of years earlier to designate 1968 as the International Year for Human Rights,⁵⁸ and, subsequently, to hold the UN’s first International Conference on Human Rights in Tehran in the Spring of that year. A programme of activities for the year was put forward by the Commission on Human Rights and later approved by the General Assembly with the theme of ‘greater recognition and full enjoyment of the fundamental freedoms of the individual and of human rights everywhere’.⁵⁹ Tehran indeed featured strongly in the commemorative session, with the Conference President, Princess Ashraf Pahlavi being invited to deliver a statement. This is unsurprising given that the event had taken place only months before, demonstrating the influence that wider events often have on the anniversary occasion, but also as one aim of the Conference was to review progress since proclamation of the UDHR.⁶⁰ Princess Pahlavi’s comments foregrounded collectivity, contingency and diversity, reflecting some of the debates that had occurred at the Conference more generally.⁶¹ In this it is possible to see how broader events can shape not only who addresses the General Assembly on anniversary occasions, but also the content of the discussion. In the session, the President of ECOSOC, Chair of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Chair of the Commission on Human Rights, former Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, Chair of the Third Committee, three individuals who had fed into discussion on or drafting of the UDHR—Malik, Carlos Romulo and Jamil Baroody—and three recipients of the Human Rights Prizes also addressed the Assembly.

While Tehran provided a particular backdrop for the session, familiar themes also arose. These include reference to the history of the Second World War, as well as balance between idealism and realism regarding the protection of rights.⁶² In the session, the UDHR was discussed alongside other documents created since: the International Covenants adopted 2 years earlier, documents on women’s rights⁶³ and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.⁶⁴ The picture emerging suggested, in the words of the President of ECOSOC, that ‘the objectives set by the Declaration… have today been incorporated and developed in other international instruments relating to human rights’.⁶⁵ What appears is a sense that UN work on human rights has developed substantially since 1948, albeit there is an ongoing focus on the significance of the UDHR in the creation of these later documents. Themes of racial and religious discrimination, colonialism and apartheid were again evident as central topics.⁶⁶ The focus on non-discrimination which cut across many of these issues indeed reflects the growing role of this concept in the development of human rights from this period onwards.⁶⁷ Issues of illiteracy, socio-economic rights and disarmament also featured, as well as the wealth gap between nations in the Global North and Global South.⁶⁸ The latter pre-empts discussion on a New International Economic Order (NIEO) which would be undertaken in UN fora over the coming years.⁶⁹ A final observation from the 1968 session is that the issue of implementation of commitments stemming from the UDHR arose. Reforms advanced to assist this work include proposals for a High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR),⁷⁰ as well as expansion of advisory services in the field of human rights, establishment of a co-ordinated programme for the advancement of women and an International Court of Human Rights.⁷¹

C. The 1970s: Generational Change and Geopolitical Tensions

In the early 1970s, preparations began across the UN to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the UDHR ‘in a manner which would fit the occasion and serve the cause of human rights’.⁷² A report from the Secretary-General to the General Assembly on plans to mark the occasion noted that ‘it did not appear from the discussions that took place in the Third Committee… that it was the wish of Member States to undertake in 1973 a programme of activities of a magnitude similar to that of the activities undertaken in 1968’.⁷³ Nevertheless, the UDHR’s twenty-fifth anniversary proceeded with a programme of national and international activities.⁷⁴ The anniversary coincided with the launch of the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination which was outlined as a focus for the occasion.⁷⁵ At the commemorative session, the General Assembly President and the Secretary-General addressed the Assembly.⁷⁶ The President of ECOSOC, the Chairs of the Commission on Human Rights and the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee of the General Assembly, the winners of the Human Rights Prizes who were present, Jamil Baroody and John Humphrey—the latter one of the UDHR’s drafters—were also invited to deliver statements.⁷⁷ Opening the session, the Secretary-General returned to the familiar theme of balancing idealism and realism, stating ‘it is well that we remind ourselves of the realism, as well as the idealism, of those who created the great Declaration… it would be wrong to say that the fundamental freedoms set out in the Declaration have been universally achieved’.⁷⁸

Given the wider context for the year, racial discrimination and apartheid appeared as two key issues addressed by speakers.⁷⁹ Additional themes of colonialism, scientific and technological advances and development were discussed and linked back to the UDHR and its provisions.⁸⁰ As in 1968, reflection on international and national practice regarding human rights was also offered and changes were proposed to advance international activity in the area.⁸¹ What is perhaps most particular about this milestone anniversary occasion, however, is the sense of a generational shift that has occurred between 1948 and 1973.⁸² For the first time, an overt understanding appears in the General Assembly that the provisions of the UDHR have been passed onto a new generation as the UDHR reaches a quarter of a century marker. The 1970s, therefore, open with an indication of the UDHR’s growing maturity.

Leading up to the UDHR’s thirtieth anniversary in 1978, the Commission on Human Rights agreed that the anniversary would be used to promote international understanding, co-operation and peace alongside universal and effective respect for human rights, with a special emphasis placed on human rights education.⁸³ States, specialized agencies, international organizations and NGOs were invited to focus on educational efforts alongside promoting international understanding, cooperation and peace. The connection between the UDHR and education is indeed one that will continue to be made throughout the decades. The General Assembly also considered that the anniversary occasion ‘should be marked by an over-all analysis of existing problems in the field of human rights and by increased efforts in finding appropriate solutions for the effective promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, taking into account the experiences and contributions of both developed and developing countries’.⁸⁴ As in previous years, a widespread programme of activities was devised which engaged a range of actors, including, given the focus of the anniversary, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.⁸⁵ A decision was also made to award the Human Rights Prizes to organizations for the first time.⁸⁶ At the commemorative session, an equal balance was struck in awarding four prizes to individuals and four to organizations.⁸⁷ At this meeting, the General Assembly President set the scene for discussion by characterising the present as a time of crisis.⁸⁸ This reference encompasses the backdrop of the Cold War and related developments shaping the late 1970s.

Unlike previous sessions, on this occasion the floor is opened to state delegates—establishing a precedent for the years to follow—with 36 speakers on the list as the session commenced.⁸⁹ Attention often turned to the equal importance of civil and political and economic, social and cultural rights as well as issues of development,⁹⁰ linking with Cold War tensions and ongoing calls for a NIEO which had 4 years earlier stimulated the Declaration for the Establishment of a NIEO. References to the human rights consequences of the arms race, extension of détente and broader references to ideological differences signal towards the geopolitical tensions characterising this period.⁹¹ Discussion on universality is also affected by this broader context. While some states stressed the universal nature of, and agreement on, rights as a unifying force,⁹² divergence regarding the conceptualization and meaning of human rights emerged.⁹³ As a result, as Roland Burke comments, ‘whether there was any “universal” Universal Declaration to celebrate’ appears unclear at this time, and particularly in the 1978 session.⁹⁴

Simultaneously, however, a sense of the ‘recent upsurge of interest in human rights issues’⁹⁵ that characterized the late 1970s period is evident. This includes references to the contemporary drafting of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The legal significance and impact of the UDHR was traced through these recent developments, with the expanding list of human rights documents being described as ‘repeatedly reaffirm[ing the UDHR’s] fundamental rights and freedoms and… contribut[ing] to the creation of the conditions necessary for their realisation’.⁹⁶ Focus also returns to the need to ensure human rights obligations are realized in practice. For example, the New Zealand delegation comments that ‘despite the progress made, Member States are still far from agreement on the issue that really counts—that of implementation’.⁹⁷ This reflects discussion in the field more generally by the late 1970s,⁹⁸ and is a topic that will arise again in commemorative sessions to follow. In all these respects, the 1978 anniversary occasion acts as a weathervane for the issues and challenges arising as this decade closes.

D. The 1980s: Changing Tensions, Peace and the UDHR

In advance of the UDHR’s 35th anniversary, the General Assembly again called upon states, specialized agencies, international organizations and NGOs to mark the occasion through efforts ‘to promote international understanding, co-operation and peace as well as universal and effective respect for human rights, particularly by laying stress on the educational approach both within and outside formal school systems’.⁹⁹ This was accompanied by a list of suggested celebratory measures which were recommended to the Secretary-General.¹⁰⁰ The Commission on Human Rights also used the anniversary to encourage work to enhance public knowledge of human rights.¹⁰¹ As the anniversary approached, Cold War tensions remained high and appeared in the commemorative session.¹⁰² Human Rights Prizes were not awarded at the event. Alongside thematic issues of racial discrimination and apartheid—the anniversary coinciding with the start of the Second Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination¹⁰³—torture, colonialism and development came to the fore and were linked to implementation of the UDHR’s provisions.¹⁰⁴ Complementing growing discussion on development, speakers drew attention to food, shelter, drinking water and wider issues of poverty and survival, as well as proposals for a NIEO.¹⁰⁵ The arms race was again characterized as impacting human rights, and calls for disarmament were made.¹⁰⁶ While division across Cold War lines was detectable,¹⁰⁷ human rights generally and the UDHR specifically were characterized as holding potential to bridge these divisions. The Australian delegation, for example, commented that ‘the human rights debate in the United Nations has provided a forum for dialogue about social and political change and it facilitated exchanges even between those fiercely committed to different ideologies’.¹⁰⁸ As in previous sessions where tensions were high, the UDHR can thus be regarded, in Jochen von Bernstorff’s words, as ‘like the old ornamental bone china a quarrelsome family gets out to set the dinner on a festive occasion’,¹⁰⁹ a source of unity in divided contexts.

In 1983, Humphrey once again joined the General Assembly, this time as a guest of the Canadian delegation. In his remarks, he foregrounded the legal significance of the UDHR, advancing that the Declaration had become part of customary international law¹¹⁰ and had emerged as ‘a much greater achievement than anyone could have dared dream of in 1948’.¹¹¹ Such comments reiterating the central place of the UDHR in the international legal order indeed reflected those of state delegates more widely.¹¹² Humphrey also highlighted the move in international law from an exclusively inter-State character towards the recognition of other entities and individual persons, of which human rights obligations following the UDHR is one part.¹¹³ For him, a change in the world order stimulated by international human rights law offered potential to facilitate peace in the early 1980s landscape.

For the fortieth anniversary occasion in 1988, a wide programme of activities involving actors inside and outside the UN was again called for by the General Assembly, including a focus on public information, broadcasting and audio-visual material.¹¹⁴ This anniversary was intended as ‘an occasion to highlight the achievements of the United Nations in its efforts to promote and protect human rights universally, to renew the commitment of the Organization in this area and to encourage Member States to ensure the promotion and protection of the rights enshrined in the Declaration’.¹¹⁵ As part of the occasion, award of the Human Rights Prizes resumed after the hiatus of 1983.¹¹⁶ Around this time, Cold War tensions demonstrated a thawing. The General Assembly President opened the commemorative session on a celebratory note, highlighting the ‘staggering progress made in disarmament’.¹¹⁷ Following the President, the Secretary-General made reference to the history of the UDHR in the post-Second World War context, stating that the document’s drafters ‘knew that human rights and peace were indivisible’.¹¹⁸ This connection, and its foundations in the Declaration, threads throughout discussion.¹¹⁹

Given the recent adoption of CAT, and reflecting discussion detectable since the 1970s, issues of summary arrests and executions, disappearances and torture featured in state remarks.¹²⁰ The United Kingdom indeed marked the anniversary occasion by ratifying CAT that morning.¹²¹ Also highlighted, and building on remarks in 1983, is the emergence of a third generation of human rights developing the UDHR’s provisions. These were described by the Colombian delegation as including ‘the right to peace, development and a healthy environment, the common heritage of mankind, universal protection against… narcotics, and the guarantee that mankind will not be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust…’¹²² This links with ongoing discussion on development and adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986. In the session, technological and scientific advances additionally garnered attention. However, for the first substantive time, the potential for such to threaten human rights came to the fore.¹²³ In this context, defence of the UDHR’s principles appeared essential. Alongside these specific rights issues, the need to enhance implementation of rights obligations featured once more. The delegation from Greece captured this sentiment in the comment that ‘now that human rights norms have been worked out in sufficient detail, the main task for the future… is the rapid, full and unrestricted implementation of those norms’.¹²⁴ Implementation appears particularly important to secure ongoing progress towards a more peaceful world in the late 1980s.¹²⁵

E. The 1990s: A New Era, Vienna and Half a Century of the UDHR

With the 1990s, a new era for human rights emerged as the close of the Cold War set a new tone for multilateralism in the opening years of this decade. ¹²⁶ In 1993, the World Human Rights Conference held in Vienna coincided with the UDHR’s 45th anniversary year.¹²⁷ This context provided the backdrop for UN human rights work during this period generally and for the 1993 General Assembly commemorative session specifically, where a greater atmosphere of consensus appeared evident. ¹²⁸ The Vienna Conference and the Declaration and Programme of Action that emerged from it were foregrounded from the General Assembly President’s opening remarks onwards. Priorities identified in Vienna were drawn upon by state delegates: for example, development, poverty, enforced disappearances, the rights of migrant workers and the rights of women and children. Following Vienna and the World Conference on Women later held in Beijing in 1995, women’s rights came increasingly to the fore in anniversary sessions from the 1990s onwards, demonstrating the relationship between the commemorative events and specific human rights advancements. Such thematic rights issues were highlighted alongside broader contemporary human rights challenges, in particular, genocide.¹²⁹ Attention was also paid to Vienna as confirming the universality of human rights.¹³⁰ Indeed, post-1993 universality is often discussed during UDHR commemorative sessions in the language of the Vienna Declaration, with states and UN actors frequently reinforcing human rights as ‘universal, indivisible and interdependent’. The delegation from the United States of America added to comments on universality by stating that Vienna served to address the ‘absence of truly worldwide participation in the preparation and adoption of the Universal Declaration’.¹³¹ Overall, a close connection was made between the UDHR and Vienna, captured by the Belgian delegation’s comments that ‘in adopting the Vienna Final Declaration, the international community wished to pay solemn tribute to the founding document of the United Nations in the field of human rights’.¹³²

A further particularity characterising this anniversary is that a number of additions to international human rights law structures had recently taken place. These include establishment of the Committees Against Torture and on the Rights of the Child, new Special Procedures and Special Rapporteurs, as well as establishment of the UNHCHR. These developments were welcomed as enhancing UN work on human rights and furthering the vision of the UDHR.¹³³ Alongside embracing such structural changes, critique emerged of existing structures, in particular the Commission on Human Rights. Politicization of this body is highlighted,¹³⁴ hinting towards debates that would eventually lead to the establishment of the Human Rights Council in 2006. A sense of structural investigation and change appears evident, with the General Assembly President indeed commenting that ‘five years from now, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration, the United Nations will conduct a thorough appraisal of its own work and that of the entire international system in the field of human rights’.¹³⁵

In 1998, this anniversary occurred and the expansion of UN work on human rights was in full flow. In the years leading up to this half-century mark, significant preparations had been put in place,¹³⁶ including description of 1998 as the ‘Human Rights Year’.¹³⁷ States, UN agencies, academic institutions, NGOs and civil society were called upon to undertake work to mark the occasion coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary date.¹³⁸ The theme for the anniversary was set as ‘All Human Rights for All’, a refrain that echoes across UN work on human rights at this time,¹³⁹ and is detectable in all subsequent UDHR anniversary sessions to date. Focus was placed during this anniversary year on redoubling and intensifying protection of human rights at national and international levels. At the commemorative session, over 100 speakers sought to deliver statements, leading to an unprecedented situation where the President urged speakers to remain within time to prevent the meeting extending into the early hours of the morning.¹⁴⁰ Commenting on the high level of participation, the delegation from Namibia remarked that ‘the list of speakers is testimony of our collective belief and acceptance of the validity of the Universal Declaration’.¹⁴¹ Across discussion, there was strong awareness of the dawn of a new millennium. The UDHR was recounted as one of the most significant events of the last century and apprehended as more important than ever to inform the new millennium’s agenda.¹⁴²

More generally, Vienna again featured in remarks made, and at this point appeared established alongside the UDHR as ‘another milestone in the history of the United Nations’.¹⁴³ Coinciding with the Decade for Human Rights Education, 1995–2004, education emerged once more at the forefront of anniversary comments and activity. The use of new technology to spread awareness of human rights additionally came to the fore, with it being noted that the UDHR had been made available in 250 languages on the internet.¹⁴⁴ This latter point links with an emerging attention to globalization which was explored as holding potential to extend the reach of human rights worldwide, but as also requiring careful adaption, including the adaption of the UDHR to this new era.¹⁴⁵ While previous anniversaries made reference to changing technological developments and their impact on global relations, the millennium moment brought the possibilities and anxieties of globalization and its consequences for the protections the Declaration enshrined into sharp relief.

One further development particular to the fiftieth anniversary commemoration pertains to changing structures at the international legal level: the recent adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. A direct connection was made between this development and the UDHR. This includes comments that the Rome Statute represents ‘the final part of the trilogy’ alongside the UDHR and the International Covenants,¹⁴⁶ as well as that the ‘establishment of the International Criminal Court must be regarded as the ultimate fulfilment of the Universal Declaration’.¹⁴⁷ This ties with wider discussion of implementation of human rights obligations at the 1998 session, ¹⁴⁸ reflecting renewed emphasis during the late 1990s period on this topic. ¹⁴⁹ The 1990s, therefore, ended on a note of particular support for the work of human rights as the UDHR’s half-century mark was welcomed alongside the establishment of the Rome Statute and the fifth anniversary of Vienna.

This is not to say, however, that geopolitical tensions had completely disappeared. Calls were made to avoid double standards, selectivity and politicization that might distort the Declaration’s principles.¹⁵⁰ Alongside this, realistic assessment of contemporary human rights challenges continued to be balanced with hopeful and celebratory discussion. The delegation from Canada, for example, commented that ‘at the dawn of the twenty-first century, millions lack the most basic needs for a decent, dignified life. Grave human rights violations of every conceivable kind are all too prevalent. Our celebration today must be tempered by that sombre reality’.¹⁵¹

F. The 2000s: Global Security, Crises and Structural Changes

With the opening of the new millennium, the UDHR’s fifty-fifth anniversary was celebrated in 2003. This coincided with the 10th anniversary of the General Assembly’s adoption of the Paris Principles, the fifth anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and, importantly, the 10th anniversary of the Vienna Conference.¹⁵² The commemorative session was formally dedicated to both the UDHR and Vienna,¹⁵³ with speakers approaching the two as ‘inextricably linked’.¹⁵⁴ The language and themes of Vienna were again drawn on throughout, in particular in discussion of peace, democracy and development and their links to human rights.¹⁵⁵ The Millennium Development Goals also featured in discussion,¹⁵⁶ as did the recurrent theme of human rights education given the imminent close of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education in 2004.¹⁵⁷

One human rights challenge which came to the fore on this occasion was the issue of global security, including reference to the events of 11 September 2001.¹⁵⁸ International terrorism was outlined as ‘one of the main threats’ to such,¹⁵⁹ and as engaging human rights provisions both in its effects and in efforts to prevent and combat it.¹⁶⁰ The UDHR was drawn upon to respond to this context and to ‘enable us to achieve th[e] goal of a bright future for all’.¹⁶¹ A second theme detectable in the session, and continuing from 1998, was that of globalization. While discussed to a lesser extent on this occasion, a degree of anxiety remained evident regarding the potential threats that globalization posed, as well as the need to, in the words of the delegation from Eritrea, ‘consolidate existing rights and… promote new rights in the age of globalization’.¹⁶² The opening years of the century appear to require ongoing use of the UDHR to confront these new contexts. Alongside these particularities unique to the period, familiar issues of implementation¹⁶³ and striking a balance between hopeful enthusiasm and a realistic assessment of ongoing human rights challenges¹⁶⁴ are detectable.

In 2008, the sixtieth anniversary of the UDHR was given the theme of ‘Dignity and Justice for All of Us’.¹⁶⁵ The International Year of Human Rights Learning, 2007–08, also tied in with the anniversary year,¹⁶⁶ making education a key point of discussion in the commemorative session.¹⁶⁷ Anniversary events included award of the Human Rights Prizes,¹⁶⁸ two informal interactive panel discussions which involved NGO participation, a one-day session held in the Human Rights Council and broader public information activities as part of a year-long campaign launched in December 2007.¹⁶⁹ Adoption of the draft Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights took place on the same date as the session, a fact that the General Assembly President highlighted in his opening remarks at the session.¹⁷⁰ These remarks also foregrounded the history of the Declaration in the events of the Second World War, as well as the familiar issue of implementation.¹⁷¹ In the session, attention often turned to the theme of crisis, including reference to the contemporary climate and financial crises.¹⁷² This indeed reflects what von Bernstorff describes as a ‘sense of institutional crisis… tangible in the debates among scholars, UN officials, and the interested public’ at this time.¹⁷³ In this context, the UDHR was looked to as offering a plan for action.¹⁷⁴ Broader issues discussed include poverty, trafficking, terrorism, illegal detention and torture, prevention of disease and a continuing focus on the rights of women and children.¹⁷⁵ Vienna plays less of an explicit role at this session, although its continuing importance alongside the UDHR is evidenced in the comment by Brazil that ‘one cannot speak of human rights in the international sphere without recognising the fundamental importance of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action’.¹⁷⁶

This anniversary is the first to follow the creation of the Human Rights Council in 2006, a key structural change in UN human rights work. Hopes were high that this new body would address critique that had been levelled at the Commission on Human Rights.¹⁷⁷ In the commemorative session, early praise emerged for the Council and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism as a means of protecting human rights.¹⁷⁸ The Human Rights Council’s adoption of a set of voluntary goals in September 2008, designed to strengthen existing commitments and bolster implementation of the UDHR, was also noted with affirmation.¹⁷⁹ Yet, as on previous anniversary days, discussion on politicization had not dissipated entirely, linking with ongoing North–South tensions.¹⁸⁰

G. The 2010s: High Human Rights Awareness and Growing Crisis

As the UDHR’s 65th anniversary approached in 2013, the Human Rights Council had been operational for 7 years and the UPR had commenced its second cycle. Commemoration activities were also taking place for the twentieth anniversary of Vienna.¹⁸¹ The General Assembly commemorative session occurred against this backdrop.¹⁸² Given these broader developments, an understanding emerged that, in the words of the Deputy Secretary-General, ‘awareness of human rights has never been higher’.¹⁸³ Additionally, throughout the session tributes were paid to Nelson Mandela, UN Human Rights Prize recipient 25 years earlier, following his death five days earlier.¹⁸⁴

Human rights issues foregrounded in discussion on this occasion included the ongoing economic and financial crises and the economic and social rights challenges that had accompanied these events.¹⁸⁵ In this context, opportunity to pause and consider the UDHR appeared particularly apt. Alongside this, issues of poverty, terrorism, migration, racial and religious intolerance and development arose, mirroring discussion in previous years.¹⁸⁶ Drawing from Vienna, the universality of human rights was reaffirmed at the session alongside indivisibility and interdependence.¹⁸⁷ An absence of consensus, however, was evident between states in relation to the evolution of rights beyond those principles contained in the UDHR. While the African Group expressed concern at a ‘growing trend to create new rights, concepts and categories’, the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States appeared more amendable to such evolution, discussing initiatives regarding the right to privacy in the digital age and a draft resolution on the right to truth.¹⁸⁸ Nevertheless, the sense overall was one of a human rights era, added to by ongoing affirmation of the new Human Rights Council and UPR,¹⁸⁹ with human rights, and the UDHR as a foundational document, contributing to unity during turbulent and changing times.

Five years later, in 2018, the Declaration celebrated its seventieth anniversary. This milestone again coincided with a number of others, including the fiftieth anniversary of the International Covenants, which took place during the previous year. Vienna featured strongly given its 25-year milestone. Anniversary activities across the UN included a high-level panel discussion convened by the Human Rights Council noting the anniversaries of the UDHR and Vienna, and invitation for states and wider stakeholders to make arrangements to celebrate both.¹⁹⁰ The General Assembly commemorative session followed the same approach of combining the two anniversaries,¹⁹¹ and Human Rights Prizes were again awarded.¹⁹² Opening the session, the General Assembly President foregrounded the UDHR’s legal significance by noting that the UDHR has ‘inspired almost every international instrument since and enabled the development of the nine core human rights treaties and their Optional Protocols’.¹⁹³ The President also paid tribute to those who contributed to the creation of the UDHR. In doing so, attention was drawn to contributors who had featured less visibly in anniversary celebrations. ¹⁹⁴ Throughout the event, contemporary human rights issues discussed included poverty, torture, extrajudicial killings, women’s rights, peace, security and human rights and racial discrimination.¹⁹⁵ Focus was also placed on sustainable development and the recently established Sustainable Development Goals, with discussion connecting respect and promotion of human rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.¹⁹⁶

One particularity of this commemorative session is the growing sense of crisis that emerges from statements made. The General Assembly President’s opening remarks made reference to the ‘times of crisis and instability’ that the international system is facing.¹⁹⁷ Further references across the session include discussion of ‘financial and economic crisis, food crises, climate change and natural disasters’.¹⁹⁸ Related concern also appeared in relation to multilateralism and the challenges it faces in the present.¹⁹⁹ In this context, the President noted that ‘we must avoid the politicisation of human rights’, pre-empting similar comments throughout the session,²⁰⁰ and characterized the UDHR as ‘a jewel of multilateralism’,²⁰¹ a sentiment that was also echoed in statements from state delegations.²⁰² On this most recent anniversary moment, therefore, the value of the UDHR in guiding the international community through these challenges appeared crucial. This document was again a unifying force and a source of universality, in the words of the delegation from Tajikistan, on behalf of the Group of Asia-Pacific States, ‘in [a] world when universal values are being eroded’.²⁰³ As with previous periods of crisis or turmoil, the 2018 commemoration appears as a moment to navigate the chasm between ideals and crises, referring back to the UDHR as a guide in this work.

4. ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AT COMMEMORATIVE SESSIONS: FLUIDITY AND CONTINUITY

The preceding section has examined each of the UDHR’s anniversary commemorative sessions throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, identifying some of the main the topics and themes that have characterized discussion of the UDHR and human rights more generally at these sessions. This investigation is useful for lawyers interested in international human rights law because it helps to deepen understandings of the UDHR as a legal text in time. In other words, investigated alongside one another in this manner, anniversary days in the General Assembly bring the UDHR into view in a longitudinal way against the broader landscape of international human rights law and its development. To build on this exploration further, it is important to consider the article’s second question: what overarching insights can be drawn from this to more deeply understand the UDHR and engagements with it in the past and present? The current section turns attention to this question. It suggests that the collective analysis of the commemorative sessions above constructs a broader temporal picture of how the UDHR has been engaged in this specific UN forum throughout the past seven decades. Specifically, this picture reveals how the Declaration and its identity have been engaged in fluid ways as well as in ways that stress or demonstrate aspects of continuity, as may be expected of any text over time. In the discussion to follow, these two coexisting elements will be explored in turn, and the themes arising in the sessions outlined above located and categorized within them.

Beginning with fluidity, across the history of international human rights law to date, the UDHR appears to be engaged in the General Assembly in a fluid and responsive way alongside, and to speak to, changing contexts, human rights issues and structural developments within this legal system. The commemorative sessions help to map this and bring into view the changing backdrops against which discussion of the UDHR takes place. This includes, first of all, contexts and thematic human rights issues that have come to the fore at specific times and historic periods. The contexts that are observable across the commemorative sessions encompass shifting global landscapes and events as well as relations between states. Examples include wars and conflicts; decolonization and the emergence of new states; the Cold War; tensions between the Global North and South; globalization and technological development; as well as climate, financial and wider international crises. The sessions reveal how these contexts direct discussion of international human rights law at particular points in crucial ways. One part of this is the influence they exert on the thematic rights issues that are brought to the fore in the UN at particular times and that capture the concern of the international community. As explored above, the rights issues detectable between 1958 and 2018 include non-discrimination; poverty; development; the rights of women and children; torture; terrorism and migration, just to name a few. These do not emerge in a vacuum. Rather, wider global circumstances and contexts stimulate focus on these issues at particular periods in time and, as a result, international human rights law has been led in new thematic directions. Instances highlighted above include the Cold War period stimulating focus on the connection between peace and human rights in the 1970s–1980s; relations between states driving attention to the right to development and its implementation as well as efforts to reform UN human rights bodies in the 1980s–2000s; and global crises in the 2010s drawing special attention to socio-economic rights and the connection between human rights and the environment.

In addition to changing contexts and human rights issues, the UDHR’s commemorative sessions also plot changes relating to the structure of international human rights law. Examining these sessions, it is possible to detect development of the first binding human rights treaties, the creation of implementation mechanisms, the expansion of soft and hard law provisions in a range of areas, establishment of new UN bodies and actors responsible for the oversight of UN human rights work as well as development of human rights norms as part of customary international law. The commemorative sessions bring into sharp relief debate and discussion on these developments and reveal the evolution of international human rights law in context. Examples include discussion in 1958 of individual complaint and investigation mechanisms; the subsequent focus on implementation, shifting in nature from the development of treaty monitoring bodies to the UPR as well as encompassing wider suggestions such as a World Court for Human Rights and proposals for the development of bodies such as the UNHCHR, first appearing in anniversary discussions in 1968. Examining the commemorative sessions over time, it is possible to identify the appetite for structural change during various periods and the forms that this appetite has taken, as well as to foreground the evolving nature of discussion on international human rights law’s development in this respect. Additions made can be linked to discussions over a period of years, or to a particular event or context that acted as a stimulant for the change at hand. The structure of this area of law emerges as one of cumulative evolution,²⁰⁴ with the commemorative sessions demonstrating the particularity that surrounds each substantial change made, both its influences and reactions to it.

What might be said, then, about the UDHR against these shifting and particular backdrops? How does this legal document connect with changing contexts, human rights issues arising and the evolving structure of international human rights law? Throughout the decades, the UDHR emerges as a document engaged fluidly alongside and in response to the changes outlined above, be they contextual, related to thematic rights issues, or pertaining to structural change at the international legal level. In relation to changing contexts and human rights issues, it is possible to see via discussion in the General Assembly how the UDHR and its provisions have been engaged to respond to challenges, concerns and human rights issues that are historically specific. Examples include engagement of the UDHR to contextualize the changing global landscape of the 1960s; to speak to the need for peace and unity in the Cold War context; to provide a basis for discussion of development in the 1970s–80s; to offer direction in contexts of technological and scientific change and increasing globalization in the 1990s; to respond to the issues of global security in the 2000s and to galvanize support for multilateralism in the 2010s. When it comes to structural changes adding to the international human rights law system, such developments are linked back to the UDHR as its provisions provide guidance and inspiration for the ongoing evolution of this legal system, and new structures serve to further implement the vision and principles contained in the UDHR. The commemorative sessions reveal how the UDHR is narrated as connected to changes such as creation of new treaties, the UNHCHR, the Human Rights Council and UPR and wider developments such as adoption of the Rome Statute. The addition of new milestones such as the Tehran and Vienna Declarations also come to sit alongside the UDHR and the vision of the Declaration is linked to these documents.

In these respects, on anniversary occasions in the General Assembly it is possible to observe engagements with the UDHR that are characterized by versatility, fluidity and responsiveness. Across the various historical periods that emerge, the UDHR is looked to a guide for changing times, capable of being engaged to speak to evolving human rights concerns and wider global developments from the perspective of international human rights law. As discussion above has demonstrated, given the variety of circumstances, events and challenges occurring over the decades of the twentieth century into the twenty-first, this is a notable feat. The UDHR emerges as a text that is drawn upon in diverse ways, offering norms capable of addressing new human rights challenges and assisting unity in times of high tension. The Declaration is also engaged as capable of inspiring, adapting to and existing alongside new milestones added during the course of international human rights law’s history. Rather than being surpassed by these additions, the UDHR retains a unique significance alongside them, engaged as adaptable to changing structures and hard and soft law developments.

Additionally, however, exploration of the General Assembly commemorative sessions and apprehension of the UDHR as a legal text in time also reveal points of continuity and steadfastness which warrant attention. In other words, they reveal how, as might be expected, the Declaration is engaged not just in fluid and responsive ways but in ways that stress or demonstrate aspects that remain continuous and steadfast regarding this legal document and its identity. Here achronology or a transcending of time comes to characterize the UDHR as aspects of its identity remain enduring regardless of time period.²⁰⁵ From collective consideration of anniversary commemorative sessions across the decades, three overarching points of continuity emerge that can be categorized. These pertain to, first, the UDHR’s engagement as a steadfast cornerstone of international human rights law and foundational guidance for the ‘journey’ of human rights; second, to striving to reinforce defining and continuous aspects of the UDHR and human rights internationally and, third, to points of debate and discussion on the UDHR which have demonstrated an enduring nature.

Starting to consider the first of these points, the commemorative sessions reveal engagement with the UDHR as a foundational document in the international legal system, and as the first step in the journey of international human rights law. These aspects are reinforced as central to the document’s identity. In the sessions, the UDHR is likened to ‘a code of life for our modern world’,²⁰⁶ the ‘twentieth century Magna Carta’,²⁰⁷ a ‘mirror that reflects how far we have come and how far we have yet to go’,²⁰⁸ an ‘international yardstick which Governments can measure progress in the field of human rights’²⁰⁹ and a document that ‘has stood the test of time’.²¹⁰ The metaphor of first steps on a journey, however, is one that has particularly endured across the decades. This use of metaphor indeed began with the General Assembly on 10 December 1948 when the President referred to the UDHR as a ‘first step… in a great evolutionary process’.²¹¹ As the Declaration has matured, this sense of human rights promotion and protection as a journey continues. In 1968, for example, the Secretary-General closes the twentieth anniversary commemorative session by stating that the meeting should not ‘be considered as a final step, but rather as another milestone in the long struggle for the achievement of some of the worthiest purposes of the United Nations Charter’.²¹² In 1998, similarly, the delegation from Uganda takes the opportunity to ‘recognize with satisfaction the long journey and the process that has been made since 1948’.²¹³ Most recently, in 2018, the metaphor of journey continues as states foreground human rights to be an ongoing task. Reflecting on the UDHR as by this time a cornerstone in the well-developed area of international human rights law, Lithuania, on behalf of the Group of Eastern European States describes the UDHR as ‘the first step in the long journey ahead to bring humankind together in response to the atrocities of the greatest tragedy in its history and to build a new world, with human rights at its heart’.²¹⁴

From such discussions, it is clear that the UDHR has been engaged as a text that has a steadfast, foundational nature. It is a document that endures and, recalling comments in the 1973 commemorative session, has been handed from generation to generation. While attitudes towards the UDHR may have ebbed and flowed at particular points throughout history—the challenges of the 1960s–70s, the new human rights eras of the 1970s and 1990s, for example—states and UN actors demonstrate a commitment to the underpinning principles laid down in 1948 seven decades later. The commemorative sessions taken together evidence practices of engagement that stress the foundational guidance the UDHR provides in this area of law and use of this document to direct national and international human rights efforts in a fundamental way. The commemorative occasions offer opportunity to reinforce a collective narrative about the UDHR that consolidates its status as foundational and even customarily binding.²¹⁵ In this respect, the UDHR is engaged in both a fluid and responsive way but also in a way that stresses a continuous and steadfast foundational role in guiding human rights work. These two elements coexist across anniversary days in a complementary manner and are reinforced throughout anniversary discussions.

A second point of engagement that stresses continuity can be found in striving throughout the decades to reinforce defining aspects of the UDHR, and the international system of human rights law stemming from it more broadly. These retain importance across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and are foregrounded in anniversary discussions as steadfast and continuous elements of the UDHR’s identity as legal text. Anniversaries for this document are important occasions to reiterate the importance and place of the celebrant at hand as well as other aspects of its identity. A number of examples can be located in the commemorative sessions. The first pertains to reinforcement of shared understandings of the UDHR’s history. This is evident when states and UN actors recall the Declaration’s drafting in the late 1940s period, as well as in tributes paid across time to the original drafters in the Commission on Human Rights. As explored above, such discussion is detectable from the first commemorative session up to the present day. Anniversary occasions offer the opportunity to reinforce the history of the UDHR, and continue shared narrations of it, as part of their activity.²¹⁶ An additional, and interrelated, example of continuity that can be recalled pertains to ongoing work to foreground and reinforce the universality of the UDHR, and of international human rights more generally. Universality also appears as an early topic in the anniversary sessions and is frequently returned to in all decades to follow. Post-Vienna discussion can be detected as turning to universality, indivisibility and interdependence considered together, ²¹⁷ reflecting and reinforcing wider trends in UN human rights work from the 1990s onwards when indivisibility and universality come increasingly to the fore.²¹⁸ Anniversary occasions offer opportunity to draw attention to and reinforce a shared understanding of the UDHR’s universal nature, particularly so during challenging geopolitical times.

Similarly, engagement stressing defining and steadfast aspects of the UDHR can be found in references to the importance of human rights education as part of work related to the Declaration. This focus indeed links with the document’s Preamble which places emphasis on education in calling for strivings ‘by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms…’²¹⁹ This is evident in sessions which coincided with UN Decades or campaigns within the theme of human rights education—such as 1978, 1998, 2003 and 2008—but, more generally, a focus on education and public information campaigns runs throughout anniversary discussions. In the later decades of the twentieth-century and into the twenty-first, technological advances are foregrounded as offering enhanced possibilities for human rights education, including development of the internet, as a focus on the vehicles of education and learning shift with wider societal changes.²²⁰ Throughout the decades, the UDHR appears to be engaged as a document compelling a continuous focus on education and anniversary occasions offer opportunity to bring the documents educational impetus into view.

A further defining aspect that is reinforced in engagements is a focus on the UDHR as a document that, in a steadfast and continuous way, requires implementation. Later, this expands to implementation of wider international human rights law provisions. As examined above, a focus on implementation begins in 1958, peaking at key points such as the late 1970s and 1990s when UN work on human rights reached particular intensity. Related to this are broader comments on the balancing of idealism and realism regarding the Declaration and its impact on contemporary contexts. Commemorative sessions frequently stimulate realistic focus on the need to continue and enhance realization of the UDHR’s principles in the ‘ever-present task’ of international human rights work.²²¹ The commemorative sessions thus reveal a continuous connection between the UDHR and implementation in engagements with this document and its identity. These are just four examples of where anniversary occasions in the General Assembly foreground the UDHR as a document with steadfast and defining aspects: its history, its universality, its focus on human rights education and the need for implementation. These occasions offer an opportunity for those participating in the General Assembly to reinforce these aspects and keep them at the centre of understandings of the UDHR from the 1950s period until the present.

Examining the commemorative sessions together, a third and final point of continuity and steadfastness in state and UN engagements with the UDHR and its identity that can be detected pertains to points of debate and discussion regarding the UDHR and the legal system that has stemmed from it. While consensus on the UDHR, its value and its provisions characterizes much discussion in the commemorative sessions, this is not to say that difference and debate do not appear.²²² Indeed, on the contrary, elements of debate appear steadfast across the decades, and this emerges as a key part of engagement with the UDHR. Examples of this include, first, discussion on the universality of the Declaration. While overall, reinforcement of universality is evident across anniversary days, there are points where critique and debate on this point arise. Recalling discussion above, this includes the 1960s–80s period where tensions regarding universality particularly emerge in the context of North–South and Cold War relations. On other occasions, the secular nature of the UDHR or the limitations of inclusivity in it drafting also come to the fore.²²³ A second example of debate pertains to the origins of the Declaration. As outlined, references across commemorative sessions include Magna Carta, the French and American Revolutions, Greek, French and English philosophy, as well as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The origins and influences underpinning the UDHR thus appear as multiple rather than singular, with states often finding connection between their own traditions and the provisions the UDHR contains.²²⁴

These examples related to the UDHR’s universality and origins demonstrate the continuity of discussion and debate in engagements with the Declaration, both topics arising throughout the history of this area of law. More generally, debate and discussion are also evident in examples of realpolitik that come to the fore during various milestone years. These include debates relating to Cold War tensions, North–South relations as well as specific issues such as politicization and selectivity. Anniversary occasions are not only commemorative in nature but also sometimes confrontational. Accordingly, while discussion and debate may have evolved throughout history, their existence in some form is a consistent feature in engagements with the UDHR across commemorative sessions. Anniversary occasions serve to demonstrate the UDHR as a source of unity and co-operation, but this does not mean that debate in relation to key aspects of this document, and the wider international legal system that has been developed from it, does not exist. In this respect, anniversary occasions are complex and offer a way to map not only agreement on the UDHR and its provisions, but also engagements that demonstrate the continuity of divergence and debate.

Reflection on the UDHR’s commemorative sessions in the General Assembly, therefore, reveals much of how this document has been engaged in this UN forum. Evidence of the Declaration as engaged in fluid and responsive ways alongside and against changing backdrops appears, as well as evidence of engagements that stress continuity and aspects of the document, or debate on it, that remain consistent across time. Lawyers and scholars can look to the anniversary sessions to deepen understanding of the UDHR as a document that is engaged in both of these ways at the UN across the history of international human rights law. The analysis above, however, is not restricted to the past, but reveals a picture of engagement with the UDHR that continues into the contemporary period. It also demonstrates the interrelation of the past and the present in how this legal document is understood.²²⁵ Overall, to consider the UDHR against the wider landscape of international human rights law at the UN, it is necessary to apprehend both the fluidity and continuity that has characterized engagement with it. As a longstanding ritual in international human rights law,²²⁶ the UDHR’s commemorative sessions offer a resource for deeper understanding of how this central document in the international legal system has been approached and apprehended. As isolated moments taken together, they offer an additional route for understanding that supplements existing work on international human rights law history and the Declaration itself, foregrounding the complex nature of engagement with the UDHR. This complexity should not be underestimated, and can begin to be thought through by considering the UDHR across its anniversary moments in time together.

5. CONCLUSION

The UDHR is an unmistakably significant document for lawyers working within international human rights law. Scholarly study of the Declaration thus retains an ongoing importance seven decades following its adoption. Much remains to be known about the UDHR’s engagement throughout the development of this legal system, in particular within the UN as a key site for international human rights law. Contributing to this ongoing work, the present article has undertaken a holistic exploration of the UDHR’s anniversary days in the General Assembly. It has identified what has characterized discussion across the decades in these important sessions and outlined how this exploration can assist in more deeply understanding the UDHR and its engagement in this UN body throughout the history of human rights law at the international legal level. In doing so, it is possible to begin to understand the Declaration more deeply as a document engaged in both fluid ways and in a manner that stresses continuity and steadfast aspects of identity, revealing the forms both have taken during the twentieth century and the twenty-first.

Adding to these insights that have emerged from the article’s analysis, it can be concluded more generally that the UDHR’s anniversary days in the General Assembly are an under-utilized resource for lawyers interested in international human rights law. The present article has offered a starting point, but has not exhausted the potential of this resource. Much scope for further work appears. Future studies may engage the UDHR’s commemorative sessions in alternative ways or from different angles to gain additional fruitful insights. This might include reading these sessions to track the development of particular thematic rights issues, to examine how individual states or geographic blocs of states have engaged with the Declaration, or to further map particular historical events and their connection to the UDHR as they appear in multiple sessions. In this respect, the commemorative sessions offer a rich resource, and the present article has laid the groundwork for further investigation that may take place. Examination of how the General Assembly turns attention to the UDHR, ‘if only for a day’, holds much potential to add to scholarly work on this legal document, as well as on international human rights law more generally. Work to explore more of the insights that these anniversary occasions may hold should continue to keep in mind the value that this article advances arises from considering anniversary days collectively. These singular days reflected on together hold potential to uncover broader temporal accounts of the UDHR, revealing longer-term patterns across the past and present. Foregrounding the UDHR as a legal text in time in this way adds a further facet to scholarly work on the Declaration and may be engaged in various ways to speak to the multiple legal audiences interested in this foundational document in international human rights law.

Footnotes

Author notes