A World Made New

A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a 2001 historical study by American academic and diplomat Mary Ann Glendon. The book sets out the United Nations’ struggle to devise and adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in the aftermath of the Second World War. Glendon, a Professor of Law at Harvard University and the US Ambassador to the Vatican, focuses on Eleanor Roosevelt’s role in the establishment of the UDHR. The book was warmly received by critics and academic historians alike, as “a welcome addition to the realm of international law and to the growing body of literature on Eleanor Roosevelt's role in modern politics” (Publishers’ Weekly).

Glendon’s narrative begins among the wreckage of the Second World War. Europe had been devastated, physically and financially. The world reeled at the revelation of the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust. World leaders, with the victorious Allies at the forefront, agreed on the need to develop new institutions to foster a physical and moral recovery. In 1944, the World Bank (then called the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and the International Monetary Fund were founded. A month later, delegates for the US, USSR, UK, and China gathered to begin devising the document that would become the United Nations Charter.

Various “Special Commissions” were proposed within the Charter, but the United States, lead by President Truman, opposed them, with one exception: the Americans supported the creation of a Human Rights Commission.



Truman asked Eleanor Roosevelt, still grieving the recent death of her husband, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to chair the Commission. Both tenacious and diplomatic, and determined to carry through her husband’s legacy, Roosevelt was nevertheless a bold choice to head a controversial project. Glendon argues that her leadership was invaluable to its success.

The great challenge for the drafters of the UDHR was to respect the cultural and political diversity of all the world’s peoples while attempting to define a shared set of values. Glendon proceeds step-by-step through the evolution of the final document, analyzing each of its various drafts and the problems that had to be overcome. She outlines the contribution of a wide range of thinkers and diplomats, including China’s P.C. Chang and India’s Hansa Mehta, as well as Rene Cassin from France and Charles Malik from Lebanon. Managing this diversity was Roosevelt. Glendon convincingly argues that without Roosevelt’s energy and empathy, the many controversies of the Declaration might not have been resolved.

At the same time, Roosevelt, enduring deep grief at the loss of her husband, from time to time found her own politics an obstacle. At one stage, she was forced to resign from the UN over the US government’s opposition to the creation of the state of Israel.



The arguments over the wording of the document were wide-ranging and profound, covering intellectual, political, economic, moral, and religious grounds. No international body had ever tried to reach agreement on these fundamental issues, and the differences in perspective at times seemed insurmountable. In the end, the drafters were forced to pursue agreement “not on the basis of common speculative ideas, but on common practical ideas, not on the affirmation of one and the same conception of the world, of man, and of knowledge, but upon the affirmation of a single body of beliefs for guidance on action.”

After six full drafts and many hours of debate in the UN General Assembly, the final version of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights was ratified on 10 December 1948.

Alongside the history of the UDHR, Glendon argues forcefully for its enduring significance. She credits the UDHR with the establishment of a new conception of human rights, in which social and economic rights such as security, food, shelter, and medical care share equal billing with the more established political rights to freedom from the abuses of power. While she acknowledges that the advocacy of the Communist states of the Soviet bloc was the leading force in the adoption of these new rights, she also points out that FDR had championed them in his call for a “Second Bill of Rights” in the U.S., and that Eleanor Roosevelt’s support was also instrumental in their inclusion in the UDHR.



Glendon goes on to argue that the UDHR has become a founding document for the contemporary world’s sense of international unity and global conscience, such as it is. While it is neither binding nor widely adhered to, the UDHR is cited as a standard and wielded by activists and politicians the world over. Glendon points out that without the UDHR, the many and various human rights movements across the world would be much less authoritative. Many countries that have come into being since its adoption have used its ideas and even language in their constitutions. Glendon rebuts the arguments of leaders from the developing world who have suggested in recent years that the UDHR reflects Western values rather than universal ones. She argues that the drafting of the UDHR was a genuinely international and inclusive process and that its aim is the practical goal of human flourishing.