Question

What is UDHR?
A. United Nations Declaration
B. United Nations Declaration of Rights
C. United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
D. Declaration of Rights

Answer 1

Hint: It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948. The date already hints at how this was a consequence of the horrors of the Second World War. It is celebrated as International Human Rights Day annually.

Complete answer: - It was originally in French and English and was composed by the Draft Committee (chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt of the United States of America). It has official translations of the working languages of the Un; Russian, Chinese and Spanish. Although it is not legally binding, subsidiaries and organs of the UN have codified these through subsequent conventions and resolutions.
- It contains 30 articles and contributed to the inception of the International Bill of Human Rights and other concepts of international human rights.
- The ECOSOC (the Economic and Social Council) had created a standing body called the Commission of Human Rights with 18 members to write this. Their work was given legal status with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1976.
- The UN had 58 members at the time. None voted against it, 48 said aye, 8 abstained and two (Yemen and Honduras) failed to give their vote.
Therefore, the correct answer is option C.

Note: It was the first international document in history that comprehensively acknowledged and listed fundamental human rights. It is also the first to use the phrase ‘rule of law’.