In October 1945, one month after the end of World War II, the United Nations was formed to maintain peace and prevent future wars. To achieve this idealistic goal, one of the UN’s first actions was to create the Human Rights Commission – a group of rep- resentatives from eighteen countries tasked with creating an international bill of rights and presenting it to the world.
Eleanor knew in her heart that defining the natural rights of all was the key to bringing goodwill to all of humanity. She wrote, “Many of us thought that lack of standards for human rights the world over was one of the greatest causes of friction among the nations, and that recognition of human rights might become one of the cornerstones on which peace could eventually be based. ”
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