The UDHR In, May 1946 the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations created a Commission on Human Rights composed of members from 18 countries. India was a member of the first Commission on Human Rights, which was charged with the task of drafting an ‘international bill of rights’. The UDHR was drafted in seven drafting stages37over a period stretching from January 1947 to 10 December 1948, the day it was adopted by the UN General Assembly. Hansa Mehta represented India on the Commission and made a remarkable substantive contribution to many of the articles that made up the UDHR. Hansa Mehta was well placed to play an important role in this process. Mehta had already represented India at the Nuclear Sub-Committee on the Status of Women in 1946. Mehta was also a member of India’s Constituent Assembly. When the first draft of the UDHR, ‘the Geneva draft’, was ready in December 1947, the Assembly had already deliberated on the contents of the Indian Constitution, including the content of fundamental rights. At the eighth meeting of the Commission, Mehta asked for consideration of the draft resolution that had been submitted by India to the Commission. India’s resolution contained the following human rights for incorporation into the UDHR: “I. (a) Every human being is entitled to the right of liberty, including the right to personal freedom; freedom of worship; freedom of opinion; freedom of assembly and association; and the right to access to the United Nations, without risk of reprisal, whenever there is an actual or threatened infringement of human rights.(b) Every human being has the right of equality, without distinction of race, sex, language, religion, nationality or political belief. (c) Every human being has the right of security, including the right to work, the right to education, the right to health, the right to participate in government and the right to property, subject only to the over-riding consideration of public weal when the State or its appropriate organs acquire it after paying equitable compensation.” At the tenth meeting of the Commission it was decided by vote (with no objections) that the Indian resolution would form one of the documents on the basis of which drafting of the UDHR could begin. Subsequent meetings of the Commission began to debate the contents of the UDHR. During the course of the two years that the Commission and its various Committees attempted this seemingly impossible task, a number of Indian’s were members and made contributions towards the perspective, scope and content of what was to become the UDHR. Hansa Mehta was the longest standing member and made critical inputs. A number of other Indian’s also represented India including: M.R. Masani and Laxshmi Menon. The Indian contribution can be organised in the following themes:

(a) The importance of the ‘secular’ approach to human rights.

(b) Women’s Rights.

(c) Indivisibility of all human rights.

(d) Non-Discrimination.

(e) Freedom of Movement.

(f) Multiculturalism, Cosmopolitanism and the Universality of Human Rights.

PRESIDENT SHRO, INDIA