Legacy of the Holocaust

1. Legacy of the Holocaust • On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. • The document recognized fundamental rights and freedoms throughout the world. • The Declaration is significant because it has become part of the customary law of nations • It has influenced our own national legislation, including the Canadian Bill of Rights and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

2. About the Author • The Author of this Declaration was Canadian born. • His sense of injustice was heavily influenced by personal tragedy which involved losing his arm at 6 years of age, becoming orphaned at 11, all the while being victimized by bullies at school. These experiences created within him a deep sympathy for and identification with the suffering of others, and a determination to protect the vulnerable.

3. About the Author • In 1946, just after the formation of the United Nations (UN), this author became Director of the Human Rights Division in the UN Secretariat and was given the task of drafting the Declaration. • The suffering of the victims of the Holocaust who had been degraded, marginalized, denied their democratic freedoms and basic human rights, were bullied, tortured, and killed by the Nazis simply because they were different, had a deep impact on him and heavily influenced his drafting of the Declaration.

4. Universal Declaration of Human Rights • In the preamble to this Declaration, he states: • Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world • Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights has common people resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief, and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people

5. About the Author • The author stayed with the United Nations for 20 years, overseeing the implementation of 67 international conventions and the constitutions of dozens of countries. He worked in the areas of freedom of the press, status of women, and racial discrimination. Upon retirement from the UN, he resumed his teaching career at McGill. He established the Canadian Federation for Human Rights, founded the Canadian Society of Amnesty International, worked as a director of the International League for the Rights of Man and served as a member of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women.

6. Among the many honours accorded him were the Order of Canada, the World Legal Scholar Award, the World Federalists of Canada Peace Award, and the Great Montrealer Award. • A Canadian commemorative stamp was issued on October 7, 1998, marking the 50th anniversary of the Declaration and honouring its New Brunswick-born author. • Who was he?

7. John Peters Humphrey1905 - 1995 Authored The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948

8. Humphrey's contribution somehow became obscured. A representative from France was credited as the "Father of the Universal Declaration" and awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize, while he, the true author modestly remained silent. • Many years later, when researchers examined Humphrey's papers at McGill University, they uncovered the original draft of the Declaration, scrawled in Humphrey's handwriting. Humphrey was belatedly honoured with a UN Human Rights Award.

9. Although John Peters Humphrey wrote the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ever humble he has clearly stated to an interviewer that it was a joint effort: Humphrey explained [This Declaration] is the work of hundreds indeed, of thousands, of people and it represents a synthesis of ideas and convictions of the millions of people of all races and nationalities who spoke through them.

10. Humphrey stated that “the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has no father in the sense that Jefferson was the father of the Declaration of Independence …It is indeed this very anonymity that gives the Declaration some of its great prestige and authority”. • Humphrey has also stated that “the final judgement of history will be determined by the impact which the Declaration has and will have on the actual conduct of states and of individual men and women everywhere”

11. A Remembrance • The full transcript of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as information about John Peters Humphrey can be found at http://www.humanrightsmuseum.ca/ • The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is currently under construction at The Forks, here in Winnipeg. • The following picture is a rendering of what it will look like as designed by Antoine Predock • Other pictures can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/imagegallery/museum2005/

12. Canadian Museum for Human Rights