No. 2 – Eleanor’s Path to Enforceable Rights

March 15, 2020

Long before her work on the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Eleanor was a strong proponent for the League of Nations. The idea that law could limit tyrants was core in her work on human rights. A Bill of Rights is the people’s agreement to live together, and the rules for those who govern in exchange for giving them the power to govern. It’s been a long evolution that needs to continue.

As Rousseau said in 1762, “it is the people who make the machine, the Prince merely operates it.”

But how do the people insure that the machine they build will not be dismantled by those who rise to power? The best way to keep control over the machine is to put the operations in writing, and then have independent judges oversee the operation.

The story being told by Eleanor, Renee Cassin, John Humphrey and others after World War II was that there are some things that those in power can never do, and that we were going to construct an international structure of rights based upon the rule of law, with courts to enforce it, to make sure that this is so.

This is why, at the closing ceremony after the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, President Truman told the packed War Memorial Opera House that the first thing the new United Nations was going to do is prepare an International Bill of Rights, adding “That bill of rights will be as much a part of international life as our own Bill of Rights is a part of our Constitution.”

This started to happen with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it stalled. The UDHR is not a Bill of Rights. It is not enforceable. The twin Covenants on Civil and Political and Economic and Social Rights are not Bills of Rights either. They too are not enforceable in courts. That is why it is time to revive President Truman’s call and Eleanor Roosevelt’s work by drafting an  International Bill of Rights that is designed to be enforceable in the courts of all countries.

By becoming a spark of light for rights you can show your support for Eleanor’s vision of an International Bill of Rights. This is a key issue in the marketplace of ideas for the 21st century. Please make a comment on our draft International Bill of Rights – help right the manual for the machine, our social order, and those who operate it.

Thanks for using your power to write the rules that govern you. As Eleanor understood, the rules in an International Bill of Rights shape your life from the moment you awake to how well you sleep at night.