On December 9, 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in Paris regarding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a key part of her speech, she said:"We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This Universal Declaration of Human Rights may well become the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere. We hope its proclamation by the General Assembly will be an event comparable to the proclamation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man by the French people in 1789, the adoption of the Bill of Rights by the people of the United States, and the adoption of comparable declarations at different times in other countries."
I can only imagine how she would feel were she alive today to see the Declaration in tatters, to realize that almost no country has come close, that almost no country has advocated, and that even the United States has fallen far from the ideals it held in the aftermath of WWII.
Sorry, Eleanor.
To read the entire text, go here. And its worth reading.
Namaste.
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