International Human Rights Day, celebrated around the world each year, marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948. Our two Foundations are particularly keen to be associated with this event, as René Cassin and Robert Schuman played an important role in the genesis of the 1948 Declaration. René Cassin Foundation, photo René Cassin
René Cassin, who was the French member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, made a decisive contribution to the drafting and dissemination of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968. Cassin was a member of the French delegation to the General Assembly, as Vice-President of the Conseil d’Etat, and was to speak eloquently on the eve of the decisive vote on December 10, defending the collective work accomplished, at a time when the clouds of the Cold War were gathering.
On December 12, Robert Schuman, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, was to deliver the closing speech at the 3rd annual session of the General Assembly, held at the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris. René Cassin Foundation photo Homme, International Human Rights Day
On this occasion, he stressed “his pride in having seen the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in Paris. The French consider that this is in some way a tribute to the age-old efforts of the French spirit to seek universal peace, and to the struggles that the French nation has waged in the service of freedom and respect for the human person”. The two men, of very different temperaments, commitments and convictions, one born in Luxembourg in 1886, the other in Bayonne in 1887, belonging to the same generation that had lived through two fratricidal wars, were driven by the same legal idealism. They saw respect for the law as the foundation of justice and peace in the world. For them, respect for human rights was inseparable from recognition of the inherent dignity of the human person. The European Convention on Human Rights, signed by Robert Schuman in 1950,
is in line with the Universal Declaration of 1948. Taking the collective guarantee of fundamental rights a step further. In it, the member states of the Council of Europe reaffirm “their deep attachment to those fundamental freedoms which constitute the very foundations of justice and peace in the world, and the maintenance of which depends essentially on a genuinely democratic political system on the one hand, and on a common understanding and respect for the human rights to which they lay claim on the other”. The triptych linking the rule of law, democracy and human rights, which lies at the heart of European values, is already apparent. The tireless work of these pioneers retains all its historical depth and relevance in a world fraught with crises, conflicts and threats, for France, Europe and the international community alike. “Peace is the duration of law”, as Léon Bourgeois so eloquently put it. Far
from being a constraint or a superstructure, it is a guarantee, ensuring equality between
all States and between all individuals.

This is as true for any constitutional state, based on constitutional principles, as it is for a Europe born of the founding treaties, in the name of the rule of law. Europe is built by law and within the law, without the “government of judges” replacing the dialogue of judges, a guarantee of transparency, coherence and effectiveness. Human rights, which have become so familiar as to be taken for granted, are being called into question in terms of both their universality and their effectiveness. Europe must remain faithful to “this common heritage of ideals and political traditions, of respect for freedom and the rule of law”, whether within the framework of the European Union or the Council of Europe. But above all, December 10th should remind us that human rights are universal principles, founded on the rejection of misery, force and arbitrariness, and on the aspiration to freedom and dignity that is rooted in every human being. Beyond states, the Universal Declaration is a common ideal addressed to all peoples and all nations, to all individuals and all organs of society. This is the primary meaning of the ever-new message proclaimed in Paris in 1948.