The Drafters: Roosevelt, Cassin, Chang, Malik and Humphrey

The Universal Declaration was written by a small, diverse group. Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the United States, chaired the Commission on Human Rights and used her prestige and patience to keep negotiations moving. John Humphrey, a Canadian law professor who directed the UN Secretariat's human rights division, prepared the first draft outline, drawing on constitutions and proposals from around the world. René Cassin, a French jurist, reorganized the text into a logical structure, which he compared to the portico of a temple. P. C.

Chang of China, the Commission's vice-chair, urged that the text speak to all cultures, drawing on Confucian ideas, while Charles Malik of Lebanon, a philosopher, pressed for the dignity of the individual person. The drafters represented different political systems and philosophical traditions and often disagreed. Their final text reflected compromises that made broad agreement possible, which historians see as both its strength and the source of some vagueness.