Students at the UN International Nursery School look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1950 (Image via UN Photo, UN7720844)
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the foundational document of international human rights law. Following the atrocities of World War II, the international community vowed to prevent such grave human rights abuses from occurring in the future. To do this it created the UDHR, which contains thirty articles related to important civil, economic, social, cultural, and political rights.
The Commission on Human Rights, led by Eleanor Roosevelt, drafted the document and was made up of eighteen members from varying cultural, religious, and political backgrounds. The final drafting of the document took two years to complete. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948.