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108
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Preamble
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 have resulted in bar-
barous 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,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as
a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights
should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations
between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaf-
firmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the
human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined
to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-
operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and
observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the
greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore,
The General Assembly
proclaims
This Universal Declaration of Human Rights
as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the
466
end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration
As the United States representative to the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee,
Eleanor Roosevelt guided the drafting and adoption of the Universal Declaration. More
than any other document in this volume, it reflects her vision of the world. It is a fitting
summation of "what she hoped to leave behind." The documents which follow both
elaborate on ER's beliefs about the United Nations and human rights and document
the drafting of the Universal Declaration.
531
THE UNITED NATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect
for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and inter-
national, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance,
both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples
of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a
spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, lan-
guage, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property,
birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political,
jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a
person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-selfgoverning or under
any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade
shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.
Article 6
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the
law.
Article 7
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination
to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any
discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to
such discrimination.
Article 8
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national
tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitu-
tion or by law.
Article 9
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an
532
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and
obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed
innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has
had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any
act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or
international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier
penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal
offence was committed.
Article 12
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy,
family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputa-
tion. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference
or attacks.
Article 13
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within
the borders of each State.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and
to return to his country.
Article 14
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum
from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely
arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and
principles of the United Nations.
Article 15
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the
right to change his nationality.
Article 16
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race,
nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are
entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of
the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and
is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association
with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
533
THE UNITED NATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either
alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his
religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and
association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country,
directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of govern-
ment; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall
be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by
equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is
entitled to realization through national effort and international co-operation
and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State of the
economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free
development of his personality.
Article 23
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just
and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for
equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remunera-
tion ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity
and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the
protection of his interests.
Article 24
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limita-
tion of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health
and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing
534
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the
jon;
event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack
ther
of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
his
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.
All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social
protection.
ight
Article 26
:ive
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least
ers.
in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be com-
pulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available
ind
and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human
personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and funda-
mental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship
among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of
ry,
the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall
ry.
be given to their children.
n-
all
Article 27
by
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the
community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its
benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material
is
interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which
on
he is the author.
he
Article 28
ee
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the
rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29
st
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and
full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject
only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of
y
securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and
of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general
e
welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to
the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any
State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act
aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
[Adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on April 10, 1948.]
535
Excerpts from Making Human Rights Come Alive: Speech to Pi Lambda Theta, Columbia
University
By Eleanor Roosevelt
March 30, 1949
Children growing up today are going to live in a world that is a very adventurous world
and not a very secure one. After all, many generations have lived that kind of life. It takes
more character, more calm, but perhaps the challenge of today is the ability to stay in the
United Nations and watch ourselves as the leading democratic nation of the world, a
nation which all the world watches. If they can see that our beliefs are as strong as theirs
and that we are not going backward, they might begin to live in the same world with us
and make some compromises. That is almost as important as to have more military power
and more economic power.
Conceptions of Freedom
The interesting thing is that they are quite safe in doing so because many of the peoples
to whom they talk don't know the meaning of freedom as we know it. In Japan, for
instance, freedom only means license. There was no character in the Japanese language
which meant freedom as we understand it, so that when we tried to explain what freedom
meant, they had to evolve a new character, because when they speak of a child who acted
with complete irresponsibility and complete license, they said he was acting with freedom.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of
education that shall be given to their children.
That number three was put in by the Catholic nations. They were very insistent on the
right of the family and the right of parents. We realized that they said this because they
aimed to prevent a repetition of Hitler's training of youth, and of course of the
Communistic training of youth. On the other hand, this statement caused other difficulties
to arise. For instance, I know families in my own country-area with whom one really had
to fight to get them to allow their children to have more education than they themselves
had had; I am not quite sure that always the parents' rights rather than the rights of
children should be the permanent, final decision. I think the parents naturally have great
rights. You couldn't educate children against the will of their parents along certain lines,
but the children have a right to certain opportunities for education and should be allowed
to take advantage of them. It was very difficult for me to accept paragraph 3, but I was
outvoted. We had a full and complete argument, and it was easy to understand why
anyone familiar with Hitler's youth training, and Communistic training today, should want
to safeguard their children against it. You do have to adjust to different countries at
different times and anything that is completely rigid will put us in a straight-jacket. This,
after all, is just a statement of standards and aspirations and a very good document for us
to become educated upon--but when you come to the Covenant it is going to be extremely
difficult andextremely necessary for us to watch every single thing that we agree to.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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Making Human Rights Come Alive
Speech To Pi Lambda Theta,
878-
Columbia University
4774
by Eleanor Roosevelt
Former U.S. First Lady
March 30, 1949
We worked as eighteen representatives of Government
on the Human Rights Commission. We are very happy
to know that UNESCO accepted the first fruits of our
labor and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. You know what it will mean if all the various
Commissions of UNESCO really help to tell the people
of the various countries about this document. It is an
educational document because it is simply a declaration
that sets standards and puts down things for which we
want to strive. It has no legal binding value, but it is a
preparation for the coming bill of rights. When the
Covenant is written, then we will have to be prepared to
ask our various nations to ratify that covenant and to
accept the fact that the Covenant has legal binding
value.
Now, of course, the first Covenant will probably be a
very simple document. It will probably not contain all
the things that are in the Declaration, because in the
Declaration we could write some aspirations, but
nevertheless we know quite well that we will go on.
Perhaps the first Covenant will not cover all the things
that we will want to have covered in the future. We will
keep our minds open and we will be prepared to meet
new needs and new circumstances as they arise, but we
have to make a beginning, and the beginning can only
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be made if we really make the Declaration a living
document, something that is not just words on paper but
something which we really strive to bring to the lives of
all people, all people everywhere in the world.
Study the Document
Now to do that we, all of us, will have to study this
document. We will have to understand how it came to
be written, why certain things are in it. I think perhaps
the best way to explain to you how difficult a universal
document is to put down on paper, the best way to
explain that to you is to tell you a little about what
happened in Committee III of the General Assembly in
Paris, when we presented as a result of the Human
Rights Commission's work over a period of two and a
half years that document that we thought was quite a
good piece of work, over which we thought possibly
there might be some discussion but not too much, and
we were to find that there was going to be a great deal
of discussion, so much discussion that at one point I
thought perhaps we would never get agreement.
M. Laugier, out of his wisdom, said, "This is very
valuable. People who discuss as much as this over ideas
are going home to talk about them afterwards." I hope
that he was right, because that is the way this document
will come to mean something in the lives of people all
over the world.
I will take the first three Articles and tell you a little
about them. In Committee III there are quite a number
of women who sit as delegates. I imagine that you know
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that that is a good committee on which to put women!
In the first place, they are naturally interested in
humanitarian questions, but in addition, I think some of
the members of our delegations believe, we might not
do so well if we were put in the political committees or
legal committees. We really might get into trouble, so
Committee III has quite a number of women.
Right away they saw something in our document that
we brought to them which we had not given much
thought to. As we presented the document, it was
perhaps a little too Anglo-Saxon, a little too much like
the American Declaration. It said "all men" in the
beginning of a great many paragraphs; the final Article
reads, "All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a
spirit of brotherhood."
After I got home I received a letter from a gentleman
who said, "How could you as the United States Delegate
vote for Article I of the Universal Declaration when it is
not like our Declaration?"
Now I will tell you how I could. The women on
Committee III--and remember there were 58
representatives of governments in Committee III, not
18-58--and the women said 'All men,' oh, no. In this
document we are not going to say 'all men' because in
some of our countries we are just struggling to
recognition and equality. Some of us have come up to
the top but others have very little equality and
recognition and freedom. If we say 'all men,' when we
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get home it will be 'all men." So you will find in this
Declaration that it starts with "all human beings" in
Article I, and in all the other Articles is says "everyone,"
"no one." In the body of the Article it occasionally says
"his," because to say "his or hers" each time was a little
awkward, but it is very clearly understood that this
applies to all human beings.
I want to tell you that to pass the first three Articles in
Committee III took four weeks and a great deal of
argument, a great deal of real feeling was expressed.
Words in Different Languages
Perhaps one of the things that some of us learned was
that in an international document you must try to find
words that can be accepted by the greatest number of
people. Not the words you would choose as the perfect
words, but the words that most people can say and that
will accomplish the ends you desire, and will be
acceptable to practically everyone sitting round the
table, no matter what their background, no matter what
their beliefs may be. So that's what happened to us.
In the next few words of Article I you will notice that
instead of saying: "All men are created equal," it says:
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity
and rights."
Now, I happen to believe that we are born free and
equal in dignity and rights because there is a divine
Creator, and there is a divine spark in men. But, there
were other people around the table who wanted it
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expressed in such a way that they could think in their
particular way about this question, and finally, these
words were agreed upon because they stated the fact
that all men were born free and equal, but they left it to
each of us to put in our own reason, as we say, for that
end.
There is one other word that I want to tell you about
because it cost us a great deal of time, and it illustrates
one of the difficulties of writing a document of this
kind. It is in Article II which reads:
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property,
birth or other status. Furthermore, no
distinction shall be made on the basis of the
political, jurisdictional or international status of
the country or territory to which a person
belongs, whether it be independent, trust,
non-selfgoverning, or under any other
limitation of sovereignty.
Now, the word we had so much difficulty about was the
word "birth" in the first paragraph. Our Russian
colleague was making a speech, stating something he
wished to have included in the Article, but he and the
translator had a different opinion as to the way his idea
was translated, and he stopped and said "That
translation is wrong. It does not say what I mean." So he
was finally asked if he would explain what he wanted to
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express. And he said that he wanted to say in French the
word "etat"; in English the word "estate." There is no
distinction of any kind such as "etat." Well, Professor
Cassin, who is the Delegate of France and a very
distinguished and interested delegate on the Human
Rights Commission, said: "I am afraid that wouldn't
mean a great deal today. There was a time when it might
have meant something in France. It was 'etat,' but today
I don't think it would be very meaningful to people in
my country." I said: "Well, I don't think the word 'estate'
would mean a great deal to people in the
English-speaking countries."
So, our Russian colleague said he would accept the
word "class," and that I didn't like very much. I said: "I
think in many countries we're getting away from the use
of that word, and it would be a mistake to write it in a
universal document." So, finally, after long discussion
we settled on the word "birth" as a translation that our
Russian colleague would accept and I thought that was
all settled. But then our China colleague, who, perhaps,
is more interested in the English language even than we
who call it our mother tongue, Dr. P. C. Chang of
China, decided that since we were going to put the word
"birth" it should come after the word "race" and should
read: "without distinction of any kind such as race,
birth, colour, sex," etc.
Our Russian colleague would have none of it; that was
not the right place. We argued for a long while, and
finally it was put after "property." Then for a reason that
I have never been able to understand, our Russian
colleague sat back apparently feeling that he had gained
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a complete victory--that it now meant something that it
had not meant before, and was perfectly satisfied and
voted for that Article. Of course, in the end he abstained
on the whole Declaration.
That is a very good illustration of one of the difficulties
of translation; one of the difficulties of really
understanding what is going on in the minds of other
people; because to this day I don't really know why that
was a victory. Perhaps you do, M. Laugier, but I never
have understood. Someday I hope to understand, but I
never have.
And so I think these three things all give you an idea of
some of the difficulties of writing documents which is
to mean something to a great many different peoples at
different points of development, with different religious
beliefs, and different legal systems, and with habits and
customs that vary very greatly.
UNESCO Will Help Us Gain Peace
Now, UNESCO is going to help us all to understand
each other better. It is going to do the work that I feel
really needs to be done to teach us more about what
makes man the kind of animal he is. Man has learned to
use nature very well, to control it very well. He has
learned a number of secrets which are nature's secrets.
But he hasn't learned a great deal about himself, and
that is probably what UNESCO is going to help us all to
achieve; and, perhaps, one of the best ways will be in
really making people understand why human rights and
freedoms are one of the foundations on which we hope
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to build peace. Peace isn't going to just drop on us all of
a sudden. We have machinery in the United Nations
which we can use, if we will, to help us create an
atmosphere in which peace may grow, but we will have
to work to keep that machinery doing its job. And the
study of human rights, the acceptance of human rights
and freedoms, may be one of the foundation stones in
giving us an atmosphere in which we can all grow
together towards a more peaceful world.
Precedents in Laws
I remember very well when Professor Rene Cassin in
the early days of our discussion in the Human Rights
Commission, suggested an article. It is not now in the
words that he used in first suggesting it, though the idea
is in that direction. I have often thought of it because it
not only illustrated the difficulties of different legal
systems, but it also illustrated the belief which many of
the representatives in our Commission had, that certain
things must never happen again because they had been
one of the causes that brought on World War II. I will
tell you about it because I think it is interesting. His
suggestion was that we have an article that would read
in French, "Personne ne doit etre prive de sa personalite
juridique," and I, without any legal knowledge,
translated it into English as "No one shall be deprived
of their juridical personality."
Well, I didn't know what I had started. Behind my back,
where lawyers sit from the departments in Washington,
there was a storm. They all said, "There is no such
expression as 'juridical personality' in English or
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American law." And all the United Kingdom gentlemen
who were lawyers put their heads together and said
"No" very firmly at me. So I knew that I hadn't gotten
the right word. Behind my back they kept arguing,
saying what it means is "without due process of law,"
but how do you say it? Well, it took a long while to
argue that out and finally one day one of my
Department of Justice youngish lawyers handed me a
piece of paper and said, "You can accept the translation
'juridical personality,' it was once used in American
law."
And when do you think it was used? It was used in the
Dred Scott case when Justice Taney said "a slave has no
juridical personality." So I accepted it.
There was no trouble at all with any of the Latin
American countries, all of which accepted the French
idea quite happily because they had the same system of
law. The trouble lay with the Anglo-Saxon people, and
finally our United Kingdom delegate said that it didn't
mean anything in English law, but he couldn't think of
any better expression, so for the time being, he would
accept it. Professor Cassin himself finally thought of
something better in the way of wording and the idea is
in the document, though the words are changed. But I
always felt that it was a very good illustration of some
of the difficulties that came up on the legal side.
There Are No Guarantees
We had a very good illustration of our difficulties from
a different point of view between the U.S.S.R. and
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ourselves. Their chief amendments were two: one was
to come at the end of many articles and say "these
rights" whatever they might be, "are guaranteed by the
state." That was a kind of national implementation
which many of us thought very unwise and so it was not
accepted, but it gave the U.S.S.R. a reason for
abstaining in the end because they said there was no
way for any of the things that were written here to be
guaranteed, which is completely true. There is no way.
It is an educational declaration and the only way we can
guarantee that these rights will be observed is by doing
a good job educationally. People really strive to have
their governments and their people understand that
these are the kind of rights that give dignity to man, and,
therefore, they insist that they be observed.
Now, we have great belief, I think, in the force of
documents which do express ideals. We think that, in
themselves, they carry weight. But they carry no weight
unless the people know them, unless the people
understand them, unless the people demand that they be
lived. And perhaps Article 2 is one of the articles that
we, in this country, and in most of the democracies,
should think about, but perhaps it is more important for
us in the United States because we have to recognize
that there are two ideas that must live side by side in the
world.
Well, the only way that they can live in the same world
is for the recognition of their equal strength to come
about. At present, the U.S.S.R. is quite convinced that
their idea is stronger than the democratic idea.
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They feel quite sure that what they have to offer in their
attitude of equality of all races, of a kind of economy
which they consider gives greater equality than other
types of economy in the world, of a kind of political
government which they say is government by workers
for workers they are quite sure that if they make those
promises there are masses of people in the world who
will feel that they are better promises than we of the
democracies can make, and that is why they single out
over and over again the United States and the United
Kingdom for attack--the United Kingdom on colonial
policies, the United States on racial policies, the way we
treat minorities--because there is no better forum for
propaganda than the United Nations.
The United Nations Is a Forum
You are talking in every committee to the
representatives, in the last meeting of 58 nations, in the
next I think of 60 nations. That is quite a forum! There
are quite a number of people that can hear what you are
saying and you cannot blame the U.S.S.R. for feeling
that they are offering what they feel will appeal to the
people throughout the world who have perhaps not felt
that they were on a basis of equality, who have perhaps
felt that their economic security was a little insecure.
There are a good many peoples of the world who have
often been not only one day away from starvation but
actually have starvation among them, and yet they have
seen a few people who still have a good deal.
So this offering--it is only promises, of course--and that
is another thing we must remember. The U.S.S.R. can
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make promises because very few people get in to verify
what they promise, but the United States, the United
Kingdom, the other democracies, they are all open to
inspection, so it is very easy to find out what actually
goes on, and that is one of the reasons why it is so
important that we in the democracies make human
rights and freedom a reality. It is true that these very
words that are in Article 2 have been in our own Bill of
Rights, but we felt it was a domestic question. We had
plenty of time. We could set our house in order when
we felt the time had arrived. We could have a little more
time for education. We could let people gradually grow
out of their prejudices. Now it is a part of the great
question of whether democracy or communism really
offers most to the people of the world. It is no longer a
domestic question. It is an international question, and
for that reason you can't wait any longer. You are open
for inspection.
We Are Inspected
Nothing ever happens in any part of the United States
that, if we are in session, whether it is the Human Rights
Commission or the General Assembly, that wherever I
am sitting the U.S.S.R. delegate doesn't manage
somehow to tell the story of what has happened, and
then he will turn to me and say, "Is that what you
consider democracy, Mrs. Roosevelt?" And I am sorry
to say that quite often I have to say, "No, that isn't what
I consider democracy. That's a failure of democracy, but
there is one thing in my country: we can know about our
failures and those of us who care can work to improve
our democracy!"
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You see, there is one very interesting thing.
Communism is perfect! I have never heard one of the
U.S.S.R. delegates say that there was anything that
could be improved! Now that is interesting about
something which still remains human, because human
things are rarely perfect, but I have never heard one
U.S.S.R. delegate acknowledge that you could improve
something in communism.
Another thing which is interesting is that all through the
Declaration the value of economic and social rights is
emphasized. The U.S.S.R. delegates fought for those
and many of their suggestions are included in those
articles, but they still abstain on the whole from the
Declaration. They fought for those economic and social
rights because to them those are the really important
things. They never offer anybody freedom and I have
often wondered whether those who listened to their
promises ever noticed that freedom was left out.
Conceptions of Freedom
The interesting thing is that they are quite safe in doing
so because many of the peoples to whom they talk don't
know the meaning of freedom as we know it. In Japan,
for instance, freedom only means license. There was no
character in the Japanese language which meant
freedom as we understand it, so that when we tried to
explain what freedom meant, they had to evolve a new
character, because when they speak of a child who acted
with complete irresponsibility and complete license,
they said he was acting with freedom.
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That is something we must remember, because when
you argue with Mr. Vishinsky, he will say there is no
such thing as absolute freedom, and of course you and I
know that is true. All freedom is conditioned by the
freedom of other people, but nevertheless there is for
human beings something very precious, which we know
as freedom, the freedom to help govern ourselves, the
freedom to help develop the future. These are very
important things for us, more important perhaps than
the actual assurance by the state of certain economic
and social rights.
Now I am going to read you just one Article, because it
will explain to you why it was impossible for the
U.S.S.R. to vote in favor of this document, and it will
show you the cleavage in thought which somehow,
some day, we have to bridge. We are not going to
bridge it right away. It is going to take time, but the
understanding of it is necessary before we can begin to
decide how we can work. The Article is one of freedom
of movement. It reads:
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement
and residence within the borders of each State.
Everyone has the right to leave any country,
including his own, and return to his country.
The amendment they wanted to that was:
Everyone has the right to leave any country,
including his own, and to return to his country
according to the laws of his country.
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That would have meant that the law said you couldn't
leave your country without permission of the
government.
Naturally, in discussion it was brought out that many
countries have regulations. I have to pay my income tax;
I have to take the little piece of paper from my doctor
saying when I was vaccinated. I must have been
vaccinated within the last three years or I can't come
back. But when that is done, I can leave and come back,
and I can move anywhere within my own country and
can do it when I wish, and I can settle where I wish.
After defeat of the amendment, I went over to talk to
Mr. Pavlov, and I said: "Mr. Pavlov," (I should say that
he speaks French very well) "do you see no difference
between the regulations which my country puts on
freedom of movement, and the regulations of the
U.S.S.R. which forbid a citizen to leave without
permission from his government, and to give no
permission?" He looked at me and he said: "All
regulations are the same." Now that is a very interesting
thing because that is a good illustration of where we
think differently.
Now, I don't expect that gulf to be bridged for a long
while. But I do feel that we can reach the point where
we can live in the same world, but I think the only way
we will reach it is if we show in the democracies that
our beliefs are as strong; that we intend to crusade just
as much as they do, and that we are as determined that
all human beings shall eventually have the rights and
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freedoms set forth in this document, and that we are not
going to be intimidated; neither are we going to be
despondent.
I think they count on wearing out our patience, on
making us feel that it is hopeless, on getting us
discouraged to the point where we will give up and
decide that there is no way to live in the same world.
The day we do that we have lost, and I hope, therefore,
that we will concentrate on making our own selves, our
own communities, our own country, the real democracy
that we have given lip service to for so many years. And
in doing that, that we will be the spearhead and the
spiritual and moral leader of all the other democracies
that really want to see human rights and human
freedoms made the foundation of a just and peaceful
world.
For Better World Understanding
In the United Nations we are trying to work for better
world understanding. You would feel, I am sure, that we
in the United Nations ought to find the answers. I agree
that we ought to, since we have delegates from so many
nations. There were fifty-eight delegates at the last
meeting in Paris, and there are going to be sixty at the
next meeting. That makes a good many delegates in the
General Assembly, for each delegation is composed of
five delegates, five alternates, and quite a number of
advisers. You get to know and to talk to many people
from different countries. And this, perhaps, ought to
give us the answers on how to promote world
understanding. But I confess that at each meeting I learn
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something new. Surprising facts are thrust upon me that
I had never thought of before. So I have come to feel
that one of our troubles is lack of awareness of the
differences between peoples.
I will illustrate for you by something that happened to
me in Paris. I have always been assigned to Committee
III. That is the committee that deals with education,
cultural, and humanitarian subjects. When I was first
put on this Committee, I felt quite sure that one reason
for the assignment was that our delegation was worried
about having a woman as one of the delegates. They
said, "Committee III-that's safe. She can't do anything
there." Sometimes I think it has not been quite as safe as
they thought it would be at the beginning. But I want to
get back to my story, because it illustrates the points of
our difficulty in understanding. The Committee was
discussing, at the last meeting in Paris, the Declaration
of Human Rights. On my right, since we sit
alphabetically, was the delegate from Uruguay, and he
was making many objections and giving many legal
arguments. I thought, in order to save time, the delegate
from Chile, who sat in the Commission on Human
Rights, might explain some things to him, so I asked
Mr. S. if he would have a talk with the delegate from
Uruguay and explain certain things to him. He looked at
me and said.
"I have been on the Human Rights Committee for quite
some time and have become accustomed to this
document, and you must let him become accustomed to
it because it is an Anglo-Saxon document."
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"But," I protested, "It is the result of eighteen nations
and they were not all Anglo-Saxon nations."
He insisted, "It still is an Anglo-Saxon document. In
time, the delegate from Uruguay will grow accustomed
to it, but just now he is very much shocked, just as I was
when I first read it."
I had been thinking that it was a joint document which
we had produced and I was sure there were a great many
things in it that were not the result of Anglo-Saxon
thinking. You see how unaware we are of the fact that
other nations think of things that come up in terms of
not representing their thinking, or their type of law, or
their type of religious feeling, and, as my Chilean
colleague said, it had taken him time to grow
accustomed to it but finally he began to agree with the
strange ideas that were Anglo-Saxon. I don't know
whether it should always be just that way, for certainly
sometimes we should become accustomed to thinking in
their terms, as well as having them thinking in our
terms. That flow backwards and forwards of ideas and
understanding is one of the great contributions of the
United Nations, but it isn't the only thing that must take
place before we get to the bottom of what it is that
divides people. The increase of intellectual
understanding, the exchange of ideas, and the gradual
coming to see what affects other people on the
intellectual levels is very important, but there are other
things, too.
I have thought a great deal, of course, about our first
and most important difficulty, which is the U.S.S.R. I
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suppose you read what their delegates say to us. They
say: "Perhaps in the military and economic sense you
have the upper hand." (They never say, "We have
"
they say "perhaps.") "But time is on our side. We can
afford to wait, because our ideas are much stronger than
yours; our ideas, our belief in communism, are going to
gain the world. It makes a great appeal because we
believe in basic human rights. We believe that all races,
all people are equal; we believe that men and women
are equal."
The Committee gets long dissertations about that
equality and occasionally it will cause a funny incident
to occur. One day we had listened for one hour to a
gentleman talk on the equality of men and women in the
U.S.S.R. A little later, he happened to accept an
invitation to lunch with us that day. The Russians will
seldom accept an invitation without another member of
their delegation going along, but he came alone. At the
table some remark was made and he turned to me and
said, "That is just women's gossip," and I said, "Oh, no,
if men and women are completely equal then there is no
more 'women's gossip!' If you really believe they are
equal in the U.S.S.R., then you must not say it is
women's gossip; it is men and women's gossip."
He looked at me and said not another word.
When they state what they believe, they are very sure of
their philosophy of equality, and they state it so simply
that they are certain that the downtrodden people of the
world will accept it much more easily than they will
accept our democratic theories. They say, "Our
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government is a government of workers, for workers.
Our economy is perhaps having a little hard time at
present, but basically, as commodities increase,
everybody will share alike. There will be none of this
having a great deal for certain groups as you have in
your decadent democracy; we will all share alike." That
sounds simple, doesn't it? And, of course, there is
something in what they say when one considers that
they are offering these ideas to people who are perhaps,
not more than a day away from famine. Nearly all of
these people have seen small groups in their midst
having a great deal and the masses having little, and to
them these promises are very alluring. The question is
whether people who are better off are willing to accept
such promises with no proof. We Americans surely have
difficulty making our promises sound as simple as
theirs.
It is quite possible to know what goes wrong anywhere
in our country, and those of us who really care can work
to make our democracy better. Of course we cannot get
in to see what happens in the U.S.S.R. and therefore it
isn't profitable to make statements that can't be proved. I
have had in my briefcase for two sessions a report from
our embassy in the U.S.S.R. telling me a great many
things which are probably true but are difficult to prove
for no one has actually seen them. They are only
hearsay. It is not our fault that we have not seen these
things. We have not been allowed to see them. But I
have never used that document.
In the last session of the 3rd Committee we had as a
delegate, for a short time, from the United Kingdom, a
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young member of Parliament. This British delegate had
sat through some pretty stiff attacks on the United
Kingdom's colonial policy. There is never a time when
we touch on the problems of a colonial country, that the
U.S.S.R. goes not give us at least an hour of attack on
the United Kingdom. I realized that our job was to get
the Declaration of Human Rights accepted, and I knew
that the U.S.S.R. would like very much to delay it so
that we wouldn't have time to vote on it. Up to the time
of the last meeting, they always abstained from voting,
saying that they could not commit their government to
an unfinished document, but at Paris it was a finished
document, and it would be difficult to go home and say
that they had abstained on a declaration of human
rights. That was not going to be easy, so the delaying
tactics were used to confuse us so that we would take
longer. I am sorry to say that, unwittingly, a number of
our other colleagues helped the delay. They were really
interested in certain points and wanted to have a chance
to talk them over. These colleagues were from the South
American countries and they had a document on human
rights in which they took great pride. They had the
Declaration of Bogota and some of them were anxious,
for reasons of pride, to have the same wording used in
the universal declaration. Every time one of them would
make a very long speech concerning this, it was
amusing to watch one of the delegates from the
U.S.S.R. or a satellite country go to him and say, "That
was a most enlightening speech--wonderful--I hope
tomorrow you will make another speech on some other
point. We need enlightening." And it always meant
tomorrow they made the other speech.
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Also, the delegate from England couldn't take the
constant attack on his country for all its colonial
policies. The next day he spent one and a quarter hours
answering the Russians, which of course he had to do.
For if one fails to answer an accusation they were sure
to say, "Oh, Mrs. Roosevelt did not answer yesterday,
so of course what we said must be true." The United
Kingdom delegate gave his rebuttal, which was fine, but
he then proceeded to launch forth on an attack of the
Russians which lasted well over an hour. If it had ended
there, we could have spared the time, but instead we
have two solid days, four full sessions, in which every
member of the satellite states, as well as the U.S.S.R.,
answered the speech of the United Kingdom's delegate,
and the U.S.S.R. could deny everything in it because it
was hearsay; there was no complete proof. You can say
that people who have come out of Russia have said
certain things, but the U.S.S.R. can say that these
people lie. Shortly after this incident, England sent a
new delegate to serve on Committee III. This delegate
was Mrs. Corbett Ashby. I immediately said to her,
"Look, we have a declaration to get through. We have
spent two days listening to attacks and the answers. Do
you think it is more important to get the declaration
through or to attack the U.S.S.R.?" While it is true that
the Russians must be answered, Mrs. Ashby agreed that
is was more important to get the Declaration of Human
Rights through. By bringing the Declaration up for a
vote, we would obligate the Russians to say why they
had to abstain. This was more revealing for the rest of
the world, and perhaps in the long run more revealing to
them, than all the attacks we could have made. It
certainly leaves less bitterness. I believe we must never
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compromise a principle. We must be very persistent,
very patient, because we have a long way to go m
understanding.
I was talking the other day to a very learned gentleman
on how we could ever understand the U.S.S.R. He said,
"Read Didemus," and I thought, "Oh, when will I get
time to read Didemus, and why?" So I thought I had
better ask honestly why I should read Didemus. He said,
"Because all the rest of Europe received its civilization
from Rome, but the Russians, from their first
beginnings, drew their civilization from the Byzantines.
You will find more explanation for Russia by going
back to Byzantine thought than you will in trying to
think of Russia as a part of the European scene." But I
haven't had time to read Didemus. I am going to try, for
I do know that there is a great deal for us to learn.
One thing that makes it hard to learn, is that we are
never talking to people. You are always talking to
government representatives who are saying what they
were told to say. You never know what they think as
individuals. Our delegation says what it thinks in the
hope that it may be taken back to their country, for they
have very extraordinary powers of memory and
concentration, and I think they report very clearly.
You who are teachers probably understand some things
that I am still groping about. I would like to know how
it is possible for the Russian delegation toe work in the
way it does. There is no other delegation whose leader
always takes part in the final argument in the General
Assembly. But their leader never fails to argue, not only
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the things that were argued in committee, but every
single point that has been worked over in every
committee. He displays a complete grasp of every detail
and every single thing that has happened during the
work of that committee. With us, the United Kingdom,
and nearly all the other delegations, the delegates who
clear the work in the committees are the ones who argue
the points in the final General Assembly. But Mr.
Vishinsky has argued for the U.S.S.R. every time
The Declaration of Human Rights was looked upon as
so important because many people believed it to be one
of the things on which we might build understanding in
the future, if enough nations could agree on what the
basic rights and freedoms were. Even though the
Declaration has no legal binding value, it is a document
to be used for education in preparation for a Covenant.
The Covenant won't cover many things, but the
Declaration includes the aspirations that we hope, in
time, to achieve. It was written with the aim in view that
all the countries that accepted it would make a study of
its ideas.
We have even included a resolution asking the
governments to see that schools and colleges become
sufficiently familiar with the document to quote from it
and to discuss it intelligently. It is quite true that it has
no legal binding value and that is why some people say,
"It is just words--more words--and we have plenty of
words--why do we bother with more words?" Well, the
Declaration is only half of the Bill of Rights. The
second part of the Covenant, if accepted, must be
ratified by each nation and that will have legal binding
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value as a treaty
A criticism that is often made about this Declaration is
that rights alone are set forth, but that with every right
there goes a responsibility, and that those
responsibilities are not set forth with each article. That
was discussed for a very long time, and it was decided
that, if you tried to set forth with each article all the
responsibilities, it would make a very long and detailed
document that would not have the same impact on
people as a declaration that was shorter and more
concise. After all, this is the Declaration of rights and
freedoms, and so it was decided to have one article as a
general over-all limitation and that reads--
Everyone has duties to the community in which
alone the free and full development of his
personality is possible. In the exercise of his
rights and freedoms, everyone is subject only to
such limitations as are determined by law solely
for the purpose of securing due recognition and
respect for the rights and freedoms of others
and of meeting the just requirements of
morality, public order and the general welfare
in a democratic society. These rights and
freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary
to the purposes and principles of the United
Nations.
The feeling was that this article covered in a general
way and would not detract from the really important
thing which was to get down on paper, for people all
over the world, with different backgrounds, customs,
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and stages of development, the basic idea that every
individual had certain rights and freedoms that could
not be taken away from him. It gave respect and
importance to the individual, which is, of course, a basic
tenet of democracy.
Now, I think, perhaps, you would be interested in the
article on religion. We thought we had consulted most
of the interested people who were represented by
consultants in the Human Rights Commission. We
found that one group had had no representation. They
had never asked for it. But when it came to the final
decision, that group differed among themselves as to the
interpretation they could put on certain things in their
own religious law, and they nearly voted against the
whole Declaration because they did not think they could
accept just one thing in this article. The article reads:
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief, and
freedom, either alone or in community with
others and in public or private, to manifest his
religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship
and observance.
And the group that had not asked for representation and
with whom we had not consulted beforehand was the
large group of Mohammedans, and they said, through
their representatives in Committee m. "We can't accept
that because in our religion you may not change your
belief." Saudi Arabia stuck to that until the end. And
Saudi Arabia abstained from voting. Pakistan changed.
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And the statement of the head of their whole delegation
before the Assembly was as follows: "I think our
delegate misinterpreted the Koran. The Koran says that
'he who will shall believe; he who cannot believe shall
disbelieve.' The only unforgivable sin is to be a
hypocrite!" I repeat this statement at every opportunity,
for I think it is something all of us would do well to
remember. He voted for the Declaration.
Education
You might be interested in the article on education.
There is one point in it that I regret very much and
voted against, but it was included and I will tell you
why when I have read it.
1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall
be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental
stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.
Technical and professional education shall be made
generally available and higher education shall be
equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of
the human personality and to the strengthening of
respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It
shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship
among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall
further the activities of the United Nations for the
maintenance of peace. 3. Parents have a prior right to
choose the kind of education that shall be given to their
children.
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That number three was put in by the Catholic nations.
They were very insistent on the right of the family and
the right of parents. We realized that they said this
because they aimed to prevent a repetition of Hitler's
training of youth, and of course of the Communistic
training of youth. On the other hand, this statement
caused other difficulties to arise. For instance, I know
families in my own country-area with whom one really
had to fight to get them to allow their children to have
more education than they themselves had had; I am not
quite sure that always the parents' rights rather than the
rights of children should be the permanent, final
decision. I think the parents naturally have great rights.
You couldn't educate children against the will of their
parents along certain lines, but the children have a right
to certain opportunities for education and should be
allowed to take advantage of them. It was very difficult
for me to accept paragraph 3, but I was outvoted. We
had a full and complete argument, and it was easy to
understand why anyone familiar with Hitler's youth
training, and Communistic training today, should want
to safeguard their children against it. You do have to
adjust to different countries at different times and
anything that is completely rigid will put us in a
straight-jacket. This, after all, is just a statement of
standards and aspirations and a very good document for
us to become educated upon--but when you come to the
Covenant it is going to be extremely difficult and
extremely necessary for us to watch every single thing
that we agree to.
I can't tell you much more, but I hope that I have given
you some idea of some of the problems that come in
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writing international documents and some of the
problems that exist when you start out to really achieve
world understanding. I have a feeling that in practice
this document will do a great deal for even those
countries where it will not be published. It will not be
published in any of the satellite countries, but, curiously
enough, knowledge seems to seep through even Iron
Curtains. And I can't help but believe that working
together on some of these things and writing them down
may be a good basis for beginning a little more
understanding and confidence. Much of our difficulty
today lies in our fears. We fear the Russians; they fear
us. How you get away from fear, I don't know yet. I am
hoping that if we can stay together, and work together,
each year that we live we perhaps will build a little more
confidence and destroy a little of the fear.
All of you who are going to teach the next
generation--the generation that is going to live with this
when we are dead--can perhaps teach them the
willingness to be patient, to experiment, to believe in
human beings even when they seem so contrary and so
difficult. I get so angry sometimes with my U.S.S.R.
colleagues. Then each time that I do, I say to myself,
"Remember that you really like these people as people.
If you could meet them as people you would like them.
So try to begin again with good will, with a sense of
objectivity, of understanding why it is so hard for them.
They couldn't possibly accept this document because
freedom of movement is one of the articles. They don't
allow any freedom of movement. There are lots of
things that they can't accept, and it will take them a long
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time. Children growing up today are going to live in a
world that is a very adventurous world and not a very
secure one. After all, many generations have lived that
kind of life. It takes more character, more calm, but
perhaps the challenge of today is the ability to stay in
the United Nations and watch ourselves as the leading
democratic nation of the world, a nation which all the
world watches. If they can see that our beliefs are as
strong as theirs and that we are not going backward,
they might begin to live in the same world with us and
make some compromises. That is almost as important as
to have more military power and more economic power.
We have a difficult job because all of our failures are
seen. At the same time, our successes are seen and, for
that reason, I hope we are going to be strong enough,
and imaginative enough, and take the future with
enough spirit of adventure so that we will live it with
joy and never grow hopeless. Never get a feeling that
we cannot succeed, because I think with the help of all
of you, and the help of many other people in our
country, we can succeed. All we can do is pray that we
will grow more tomorrow and that others will grow with
us, and together we will be able to win a peaceful
world."
Gifts
Of
Speech
30 of 30
12/1/98 3:35 PM
Alison M. Kolwaite
11/24/98 03:34:34 PM
Record Type:
Record
To:
See the distribution list at the bottom of this message
cc:
John Dankowski/WHO/EOP, Virginia Apuzzo/WHO/EOP, Michael D. Malone/WHO/EOP
Subject: Weekly Announcements
PLEASE POST
INTERN WEEKLY EVENTS
November 24- December 4, 1998
TOURS
National Archives
Monday November 30, 1998 1:15 pm
FBI
Friday December 4, 1998 2:40 pm
Library of Congress
Thursday December 10, 1998 3:00 pm
Pentagon
Friday December 11, 1998 3:00 pm
Tour sign-up sheets are available one week before the scheduled tour
date in the Intern Office. Directions are also available. Please arrive at
the tour location 15 minutes before the scheduled tour time. If you
cannot attend a tour you have signed up for, please remember to call
the Intern Office to cancel.
Speaker Series
will host
Janet Reno
United States Attorney General
Thursday December 3, 1998
1:30 pm
Room 450
Have a nice Thanksgiving.
Message Sent To:
C
Anna J. Fenner
11/30/98 11:03:38 AM
Record Type: Record
To:
See the distribution list at the bottom of this message
cc:
Subject: Intern Speaker Series
The Intern Speaker Series will host:
Janet Reno
United State Attorney General
Thursday, December 3, 1998
1:30pm
OEOB 450
Message Sent To:
INSURING DEMOCRACY
well and
recommendations helped to pave the way for the inclusion in the Social Secu-
y mother
rity Act of 1935 of the federal-state programs for aid to dependent children,
e feeling
for maternal and child-health services, for services for crippled children and
or under-
for child-welfare services, and for the subsequent development of these pro-
grams in our states and territories.
1 have it
The standards set up in these conferences are very much the same stan-
ed in the
dards that any able and intelligent parent will set for himself in contemplating
which we
the upbringing of his own family. First we consider the health program, which
) be very
1 as those
brings us to the question of maternity and infancy care. As a result of the
conference in 1919, the Sheppard-Towner Act was passed in August, 1921. It
stance, in
brought before the people statistics on the shocking loss of mothers and of
n, just as
infants during the first year after birth. The right of children to normal family
inging of
life received recognition, and today mothers' pensions keep families together
even in the face of economic disaster through the loss of fathers or the impair-
ment of their earning capacity. In turn, we came to consider education and
recreation. Today we are considering the more difficult question of the right
of youth to work, and last and most difficult of all, though most important, we
needed to
are considering the moral values which our children must acquire if they are to
who had
feel a sense of responsibility for themselves and their neighbors, and so de-
: children
velop the type of democracy which they have inherited into a more perfect
Children
instrument of self-government.
hree oth-
Again in Miss Lenroot's words: "The 1940 conference has counted the
gains made for children even during the years of economic depression and has
epartment
planned, for the coming ten years, that we seek to provide for children in every
community in the United States the essential services and benefits for the
ed a
preparation of responsible citizens of a democracy. The conference empha-
ne is
sized the fact that the family has the primary opportunity and responsibility for
e for
the care of children and for introducing them to the experiences that lead to a
on of
full personal life and to successful community life. The report recognized the
serve
economic and social factors that condition family and community life. It points
out the gains that can be made for children through joint planning and effort
pices
on the part of individuals and groups in each community, through the leader-
e the
ship of state agencies, and through federal action that provides for nationwide
egis-
programs."
ction
Making the Most of Their Dollars
ies of
:d for
The people who attended the conference and who listened to the President's
ilable
speech can go back to their own communities, influence public opinion and
:1 the
demand:
n the
inors
1. Some kind of medical program.
ors in
2. That all our citizens take an active part in shaping the policies in the
e dis-
public schools; that all of us know our public-school teachers and give
rence
them any help and assistance that they desire.
93
6
REFLECTIONS AND PERSONAL TESTIMONY
married, and they had gone back on the vaudeville stage, where they had
worked before. Two children had come to them, whom her mother cared for.
As vaudeville actors do, they traveled from place to place, winter and summer,
sometimes making fairly good money, sometimes having pretty lean years,
always spending everything they had, but, on the whole, it was a gay life, and a
happy one, for they loved each other. Then the dread disease of tuberculosis
took hold of the man, and the Government took him back and gave him care
in a Western hospital. She had to go on the road alone, to feed and house her
mother and the children, and give her husband the little extras which meant so
much to him. Now and then she would manage to get to see him. Six months
before, they had a happy day together, and then came the telegram telling her
that he was desperately ill, and, taking all she had, she went, only to see him
die and to bring his body home. She was a realist and did not dramatize her
situation, so tears were few, and even in her sorrow there was a certain gaiety,
for she said, "We had good times, and I hope the children will have them too.
Now I must be getting back to work."
Without curiosity, I would never have heard that story and I would have
missed the lift which you get when you meet with courage that faces heartache
and a future of hard work and anxiety and still can be gay, for this will mean
much to you when your own road is rough, as it is sooner or later for every
traveler in this most interesting world.
In its simplest form, curiosity will help you to an all-around education.
That is why little children are so often living question marks. They naturally
desire to know about the world in which they live, and if they lose that
curiosity, it is usually because we grown people are so stupid.
I once knew a little boy who found the dictionary fascinating reading,
because it gave him information about such a great variety of subjects, and he
read it straight through from cover to cover; and to this day he will come
out with the most astonishing pieces of information gleaned from that old
dictionary!
The thoroughness with which a child will pursue a subject until it has
been completely mastered, going over it again and again, until it becomes so
thoroughly familiar that you think it must be tiresome, is something which we
should all respect, and, instead of trying to curb and stop this type of curiosity,
we should always encourage it.
As a wise old horse trainer once said to me about a little boy, "He will
sure go far in life, for when he wants to know a thing, he wants to know all
there is about it, and he don't give up until he is sure he understands it all."
Horses and people have a good deal in common, and a good horse may be
terrified by something, but if he is well trained his fears will be conquered and
he won't give up until he has mastered those fears and understands how to
handle himself in all the situations that he habitually encounters.
A man who trains horses will usually understand people, particularly
little folks, who are making their first struggle to understand the world. He
will be interested in watching the development of a personality, and, as a rule,
he himself will be an interesting personality.
22
IN DEFENSE OF CURIOSITY
ere they had
What we talk of as personality is nothing more than the effect of experi-
her cared for.
ence and knowledge, filtering through the emotional system of an individual
and summer,
until it becomes part of his inner consciousness and radiates from it in what we
y lean years,
recognize as personality. If we feel a person has a negligible personality, it
gay life, and a
usually means that that person has lacked the curiosity to see life and really
f tuberculosis
understand it. It is quite easy to see a great many things and yet to be so
gave him care
lacking in curiosity and in understanding that one does not know what they
nd house her
mean.
nich meant so
I went to a play once, and in a part which was really tragic, the audience
1. Six months
laughed. It was not the playwright's fault, nor yet the actor's, but what was
im telling her
shown upon the stage was so foreign and inexplicable to that particular audi-
ly to see him
ence that, instead of seeming tragic, it seemed funny. Laughter and tears are
Iramatize her
closely allied, but on this particular occasion, it was not nervous laughter, the
certain gaiety,
laughter that verges on tears, but quite patently an inability to believe that a
ave them too.
situation such as that play described could exist. On the whole, that particular
audience had never been curious about that particular phase of life.
I would have
ces heartache
Rubbing Elbows With the Slums
his will mean
ater for every
In addressing a fairly rich city audience, I tried to describe certain conditions
of life in a distant part of our own country, and thinking if I chose something
nd education.
which all of them possessed, and which was entirely lacking in the homes of
They naturally
the families I was trying to picture, it would mean something to them. I said
hey lose that
that until the depression had forced us to set up relief and to find some
projects on which women could work, there were innumerable families through-
ating reading,
out certain portions of the country that had never known what it was to sleep
bjects, and he
upon a mattress. I was met with blank faces, and before I said another word, I
he will come
realized that my audience was thinking, "Well, what did they sleep on?" be-
from that old
cause it had never occurred to them that it was possible to sleep on anything
but a mattress. There might be poor ones or good ones, but that anyone did
ct until it has
without a mattress was absolutely impossible for that audience to comprehend.
it becomes so
It is not always our own fault when we lack curiosity, for our environ-
ning which we
ment may have prevented its development. The lack of curiosity in parents
e of curiosity,
will often mean that they will try to eliminate it in their children, and thus
keep their homes from stimulating the youthful urge to acquire knowledge.
boy, "He will
A few years ago, when I was conducting a class in the study of city
its to know all
government, we took up one of the functions of the government-namely,
rstands it all."
public health. This is closely allied to housing, so I suggested that our group
horse may be
visit some of the different types of tenements. There was considerable concern
conquered and
among some of the mothers, for fear some illness might be contracted. It
stands how to
apparently never occurred to them that hundreds of young people lived in
these tenements all the time, nor that, very likely, there entered into their
le, particularly
sheltered homes daily people who served as delivery boys, servants and work-
the world. He
men, who spent much of their time in tenements; so, even if the sheltered
and, as a rule,
children did not visit them, the tenement home radiated out all that was good
23
e lives of hu-
emselves from
17
us of inwardly
Insuring Democracy
e life of Christ
elf. Under the
, of course, be
I do not think that I am a natural-born mother. I had dolls as a little girl, but I
and prodding
cannot remember being concerned about them, and even though I was some
ticipate in new
d.
years older than my little brothers, and of necessity had to take a certain
amount of responsibility about them, I do not think I ever did it with the
ople would be
maternal affection which is seen in some small girls.
will be prima-
I did have a sense of duty and of obligation and that was fostered in me
nocracy for the
hrist.
by my mother and then by my grandmother. If I ever wanted to mother
anyone, it was my father and not my baby brothers. That sense of obligation
to smaller and weaker children remained with me through my school years
and gained great impetus through my first year of teaching some classes of
small girls in a New York City settlement house. There I saw with my own
eyes some of the disadvantages of conditions brought about by economic
insecurity.
I think I approached my own motherhood with a keen sense of responsi-
bility but very little sense of the joy which should come with having babies. It
was a long time before I gained enough confidence in my own judgment really
to enjoy a child. I do not know that even today I have it, but the old sense of
responsibility is still with me. I never felt, even as a young woman when I did
nothing outside and put all my energies into having children and keeping
house, that I was right about my plans for bringing up my children. I often
wonder today why I have been so fortunate to have some of the children
develop a sense of respect and friendship for me, because I administered disci-
pline not because I wanted to, but because of the convictions of others, and my
love was always overshadowed by my duty. I enforced certain rules, I lived up.
to certain habits in the family and only rarely departed from the strict supervi-
sion and suggestion of others.
I remember that it took all of my courage, and the fact that everybody
else in the house had the flu, to trust myself to move the youngest of our five
children into my own bedroom and take complete responsibility for him when
he had an attack of bronchial pneumonia. I could get only one trained nurse
and she had complete care of one of the other children who had double
pneumonia. Practically everybody in the city and in the house was laid low,
and so I had to rise to the occasion, otherwise I doubt if I would have felt like
trusting myself to carrying that amount of responsibility without direction
from others close at hand all the time!
But all children, it seems to me, have a right to food, shelter, and equal
opportunity for education and an equal chance to come into the world healthy
Collier's 105 June 15, 1940): 70, 87-88.
91
DEMOCRACY AND THE GENERAL WELFARE
3. That all of us take an interest in recreation programs designed not only
to be of value to children in school, but to help our young people who
are unfortunate enough not to find suitable jobs immediately.
4. That in every community we set up, in conjunction with the nearest
employment service, an auxiliary to help young people to obtain the
most suitable jobs.
This last year we have come to realize that instead of thinking only of
what should be done for the mother in pregnancy and at the birth of her child,
we should find out what economic situation forced the mother and child at
these crucial moments to be a burden on the community. Instead of being
concerned with obtaining proper diets for small children through charitable
agencies, we should be concerned with the education of the average girl and
boy so they will make the most of their dollars, to learn through practical
experience how to make use of food in order to keep well.
If we relate the immediate problems of the child to the problems of the
family as a whole, we will find ourselves concerned with housing, medical and
dental care, education and recreation. We will be interested in wages and
hours for labor, and we will try to figure out an adequate family income.
We are beginning to realize that what the family can do must be supple-
mented by what the community can do for its children. Population and income
studies show that in many cases the ability of a community to supplement the
family income and to contribute to a child's well-being is particularly low in
the areas where we have the greatest number of children.
Where the local income falls short I think the state or even the nation
should be called upon to make this equality of basic rights applicable to every
child.
A Menace to All Workers
We are learning that rural slums may be quite as bad as city slums. We are
learning that it is not because of the adult members of the family alone that we
must do away with these slums. The children born and brought up in them are
apt to be conditioned for the future by their earliest environment. What hap-
pens to our children is the concern of the whole nation because a democracy
requires a standard of citizenship which no other form of government finds
necessary. To be a citizen in a democracy a human being must be given a
healthy start. He must have adequate food for physical growth and proper
surroundings for mental and spiritual development. Under a dictatorship it may
be sufficient to learn to read and write and to do certain things by rote, but in a
democracy we must learn to reason and to think for ourselves. We must make
our decisions on the basis of knowledge and reasoning power. In a democracy
we must be able to visualize the life of the whole nation. When we vote for
candidates for public office to be our representatives, we must decide on the
qualities to be required of the men and women who are to hold public offices.
94
DEMOCRACY AND THE GENERAL WELFARE
and get the care they need through their early years to keep them well and
happy. And though one may not trust oneself to direct their lives, every mother
should encourage them to self-confidence and should give them the feeling
that whatever happens in life, there is a place where they can turn for under-
standing and help.
mos
If you have this feeling about your own children, you should have it
histo
about all children, and for that reason I have always been interested in the
problems of the children in our communities. Under the standards which we
hum
have set to guide us in the upbringing of our children, we used to be very
that
individualistic, with, however, certain strongly marked influences such as those
of the church, and group traditions in which we had grown up. For instance, in
Thr
New England the customs of the Pilgrims shaped the child's education, just as
cles
later the Quakers had a great deal to do with the character and upbringing of
the young Philadelphians.
of h
resp
To Make Better Citizens
The
Thirty years ago the President of the United States felt that we needed to
bring together, to formulate standards for our guidance, the people who had
her
some influence on the general thought of what should be done for the children
of the nation. This became the first White House Conference on Children
are
under President Theodore Roosevelt. Since then there have been three oth-
esse
ers-1919, 1930 and 1940.
the
As Miss Katharine Lenroot, of the Children's Bureau in the Department
of Labor, says:
of a
The 1909 conference called by President Theodore Roosevelt stated a
to
principle that is now recognized in all parts of the country: that the home is
der
the place for children and that no child should be deprived of his home for
reasons of poverty alone. The stimulus of this conference led to the creation of
wo
the Federal Children's Bureau in 1912, a national center of research to serve
the
the growing child-welfare movement.
The 1919 conference called under President Woodrow Wilson's auspices
rig
formulated a set of child-welfare standards that have guided and still guide the
programs of public and private children's agencies and state and federal legis-
nat
lation affecting children.
the
The 1930 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection
called by President Herbert Hoover brought together an outstanding series of
tic
reports describing the content and character of care and protection needed for
children and revealed the limited extent to which such services were available
for many children. The findings on medical care raised to a new level the
recognition of the care needed for the health of mothers and children in the
United States. The committee reports on hazardous occupations for minors
laid the groundwork for the later regulation of the employment of minors in
hazardous occupations under the Fair Labor Standard Act of 1938. The dis-
cussion throughout the country of the Children's Charter and other conference
Fa
92
Humanity must "either recognize the fact that what serves the people as a whole serves them best
as individuals"
--Eleanor Roosevelt
"To be afraid is wasting your time, if you keep busy helping others you have no time to be afraid."
--Eleanor Roosevelt
Journals
http://www.unicef.org/crc/journals.htm
CHILD RIGHTS
unicef
United Nations Children's Fund
Journals
HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS, an international quarterly journal. Harvard School of
Public Health.
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY; a comparative and international journal of the social
sciences, humanities and law. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHILDREN's RIGHTS. (A Publication of the
Children's Rights Publications Foundation), Kluwer Law International, (NL) Kluwer Academic
Publisher.
NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS. New York Law School.
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UNICEF New York Library Publications
http://www.unicef.org/crc/nyhqpubs.htm
CHILD RIGHTS
unicef
United Nations Children's Fund
Selected Child Rights Publications
UNICEF New York Library
The best interests of the child: Reconciling culture and human rights. Oxford:
Clarendon Press for ICDC, 1994. 297 p.; bibl. ISBN/ISSN: 0198259263
The handbook of children's rights: Comparative policy and practise. New York:
Routledge, 1995. 248 p. ISBN/ISSN: 0-415-1ten60-2
Human rights: A compilation of international instruments. New York: UN, 1993.
ISBN/ISSN: 9211540925 (ST/HR/1/Rev.5)
The ideologies of children's rights. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 1992. 369 p. ; bibl.
ISBN/ISSN: 0-7923-1800-5 (International studies in human rights; vol.23)
Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Resource mobilization
in low-income countries. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 1995. 262 p., bibl. ISBN/ISSN:
90-411-0090-3
The international law on the rights of the child. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff for Save
the Children, 1994. 435 p.; bibl. ISBN/ISSN: 0-7923-2687-3 (International studies in
human rights; v.35)
It's only right!: A practical guide to learning about the Convention on the Rights
of the Child. New York: UNICEF, 1993. 78 p. ISBN/ISSN: 9280630563
Rights of the child. Sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
New York : UN, 1994. 18 p. ISBN/ISSN (E/CN.4/1994/84/Add.1)
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: A guide to the
"Travaux préparatoires." Boston: Matinus Nijhoff, 1992 712 p. bibl. ISBN/ISSN:
0792316908
A voice for children: Speaking out as their ombudsman. London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers, 1991. 249 p. ; bibl. ISBN/ISSN: 1853021180
The whole child: A project to introduce the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child to 8 - 13 year-olds. London: UNICEF-UK, 1989. 54 p. ; photos. ISBN/ISSN:
1870322171
For copies of the above titles, please send your request to the publisher.
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http://www.oneworld.org/scf/pubnght.html
working for a better world for children
Save the Children Y
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
United Kingdom
A range of leaflets/posters and publications to help you explore children's rights. To order any of
these publications click here
NEW
United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child
Save the Children Alliance training kit
This new training pack from the international Save the Children Alliance will help you understand
the principles and contents of the Convention and consider how to integrate it into your policy
and practice.
April 1997 ISBN 1 899120 55 6
A4 ring binder 460 pages
£28.00 plus £5.00 postage and packing in the UK, £10.00 postage and packing rest of the world.
for full details of this publication including the contents follow the link in the title above.
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN THE UK
'I believe that we should claim certain rights for children and labour for their universal
recognition.'
Eglantyne Jebb 1923 (founder of Save the Children)
There is a growing recognition that children have rights which is reflected in domestic legislation
and international convention. This leaflet provides an introduction to children's rights and the
issues raised by this sometimes controversial subject.
Free 1994 A5 6 pages illustrated
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS POSTERS
A set of six eye catching posters which clearly illustrate ten of the articles from the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child. These stimulating training materials are excellent visual
aids and are ideal for use in schools, residential care establishments, youth clubs, in fact any
setting where young people's rights are being discussed. They are supported by a user's guide
written by young people to promote young people's views.
Care and Justice Yorkshire
£5.60 1994 six A3 two colour posters and A4 users guide 7 pages
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PROMOTING CHILDREN'S RIGHTS POSTERS
Participation - a central theme in children's rights can be a difficult discussion topic. What do we
mean by participation? How can young people play a more active role? This set of three posters
aims to help people talk about young people's rights, especially the idea of participation. The
posters evolved from a pilot project on children's rights and were produced by the young people
of St. Edmunds Avenue, Rotherham.
Care and Justice Yorkshire and Rotherham Social Services
£3.00 1994 three A3 colour posters
A GUIDE TO RIGHTS
Written by young people for young people, this booklet summarises and clarifies the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The guide describes the rights enshrined in the
articles of the convention through personal accounts and drawings. The articles are grouped
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people. This resource will be invaluable to young people, practitioners working on children's
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Rights for us group
£2.00 1994 A5 booklet 32 pages ISBN 1 870322 91 6
TOWARDS A CHILDREN'S AGENDA
Full document available on the internet, just click on the title
New challenges for social development
The 1995 World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen confirmed the need for change in
policies to improve human welfare and well-being, both in the post-industrial countries of the
North and the developing countries of the South. Save the Children welcomes this approach, but
believes that the goals of the Declaration will be achieved only if children and their needs,
interests, and perspectives are placed at the centre of social and economic policy, alongside and
equal to those of adults. This report explains the impact of current development approaches on
children's lives, spells out the need for a Children's Agenda, and discusses how this could be
accomplished in reality.
1995 A4 62 pages £5.00
THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD SET:
THE WHOLE CHILD, IT'S OUR RIGHT, KEEP US SAFE AND
TEACHERS' HANDBOOK
This set of resources introduces learning about the rights of the child across the curriculum. In
1989 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Many countries, including the United Kingdom, have ratified the Convention, which has become
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international law to uphold basic rights for all children. Save the Children's work is based upon the
principles enshrined in the Convention.
These A4 topic books for 8-13 year olds introduce the articles of the Convention through
classroom activities and case studies from children's experiences around the world.
The whole child: The participation articles: rights of play, education, culture, expression.
It's our right: The provision articles: rights of care, food, water, health.
Keep us safe: The protection articles: rights against: neglect, abuse, exploitation, violence.
Teachers' handbook: provides the full text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, together
with a brief history of children's rights, a description of the work of Save the Children and
UNICEF-UK and applications of the materials for subjects and themes in the National Curriculum
of England and Wales.
Save the Children and UNICEF/UK with the Oxford Development Education Unit 1990
The whole child 56 pages ISBN 1 870322 17 7 £4.50
It's our right 80 pages ISBN 1 870322 18 5 £4.50
Keep us safe 78 pages ISBN 1 870322 19 3 £4.50
Teachers' handbook 32 pages ISBN 1 870322 20 7 £3.50
£14.00 for the whole set
LEEDS CHILDREN'S RIGHTS SERVICE
Project report September 1991 to December 1992 and
Project report January 1993 to March 1994
These reports cover the work of this project examining case work and special projects. They will
be of interest to all those who wish to be informed about children's rights work, particularly in the
social services.
£1.00 1992 A4 8 pages; £1.00 1994 A4 8 pages
REVIEWING THE REVIEWS
Day care for young children in Yorkshire and Humberside
This report evaluates the way in which Yorkshire and Humberside authorities have undertaken
their new duty under the Children Act to review services for children under eight. It provides
pointers for improving the process in the future and draws conclusions which will be helpful to
those working with services for the under eights.
Liz Trinder, Save the Children
£2.00 1993 A4 ring bound 94 pages ISBN 1 870322 70 3
FOR BETTER OR WORSE
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Research into the impact of the Children Act 1989 on the work of family court welfare teams
The findings of this research cover family court welfare teams in 45 probation areas across
England and Wales. The four aspects of practice investigated were; the effects of timetabling;
working with children; the place of conciliation; and anti-discriminatory practice. The research
was carried out in the summer of 1993, eighteen months after the implementation of the Act.
Brian Cantwell, Humberside senior family court welfare officer and Liz Trinder, Save the
Children
£1.00 1993 A4 30 pages
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1.11. Law about Children
http://www.law.comell.edu/topies/childrens-nghts.html
LII
legal information institute
Law about
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search
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lii home
children: an overview
menu of sources
A child is a person, and not a subperson over whom the parent has an
Federal Material
absolute possessory interest. The term "child" does not necessarily mean
minor, but can include adult children, and even adult nondependent children.
Federal Statutes
Children are generally afforded the basic rights embodied by the constitution
The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment is said to apply to
42 U.S.C. § 1983 - Civil Rights of
children born within a marriage or not, but excluding children not yet born.
Children
There are both state and federal sources of child-rights law.
42 U.S.C., Chapter 67 - Child Abuse
Prevention and Adoption Reform Act
42 U.S.C., Chapter 7 - Social Security
Act
42 U.S.C., Chapter 6 - The Children's
Bureau
25 U.S.C., Chapter 21 - Indian Child
Welfare Act
Federal Judicial Decisions
U.S. Supreme Court:
Recent Decisions Involving
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Historic Decisions Involving
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State Material
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Uniform Laws Dealing with Children --
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Columbia)
State Family Law Statutes
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N.Y. Court of Appeals:
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Conventions and Treaties
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(20 Nov 89)
Other References
Key Internet Sources
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2 of 2
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Translating principles into law
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/cotransl.htm
THE PROGRESS OF NATIONS 1996
THE CONVENTION ON THE
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
unicef
Translating principles into law
Of 43 countries whose reports have been reviewed, 14 have
incorporated the Convention into their constitutions. 35 of the 43
have passed new laws or amended existing laws to conform with the
Convention.
International treaties bind ratifying countries to principles that they are
obligated to honour. One way to honour them is for countries to
create a legal framework to carry out a treaty's provisions. Some
examples:
In Tunisia, changes were made to child-related legislation even before
ratification of the Convention (30 January 1992). Education laws were passed in 1991, for example,
mandating education for all 6-to-16-year-olds, and penalizing parents who don't send their children to
school.
After ratification, the Tunisian Government, with the help of legal professionals and international experts,
completed a two-year review of national legislation to bring it into line with its treaty obligations. The
result was the new Code for the Protection of the Child (31 October 1995), recently adopted by the
Tunisian Parliament. Details were submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which
congratulated Tunisia for legislative measures that go beyond the minimum standards of the Convention
and are in many cases "more conducive to the realization of the rights of the child than those contained in
the Convention."
Other countries have found that they have few laws that specifically protect children. Ukraine, for
example, is finalizing a new Children's Act that will be the first legal instrument to protect children's
rights.
Photo: Tunisia - penalties if children are not in school.
©
Sex exploitation
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http://www.unicef.org/pon96/cotransl.htm
Some countries have begun extending legislative protection to children at risk of sexual and other forms
of exploitation. In Sri Lanka, parliamentarians quoting the Convention passed four amendments
(September 1995) to strengthen laws related to child sexual abuse, child labour, and adoption.
Similarly, the Philippines has taken measures to define and penalize child prostitution and trafficking.
Belgium and Germany recently extended their national jurisdiction in cases of child prostitution and
pornography so that adults could be prosecuted for such crimes against children committed outside their
national boundaries. They join other countries such as Australia, Denmark, France, Japan, Norway,
Sweden, and the United States that have passed similar legislation.
Law and labour
Several countries have recently adopted a minimum working age, including Nepal, Pakistan, the
Philippines, and Portugal. Burkina Faso has revised child labour legislation to bring it into line with the
Convention.
In Indonesia, a new Convention-inspired Education Bill, introduced in May 1994, has increased the
length of compulsory education from six to nine years. It is hoped that this will improve compliance with
the minimum working age of 14.
A number of countries that have reported to the Committee have been asked to give children greater
legislative protection. The new nation of Belarus, for example, has been informed that existing laws on
labour, the family and marriage, and criminal procedure need amendment to bring them into compliance
with the Convention. Belarus passed a Rights of the Child Act in 1993.
In some nations, children of refugees or disenfranchised minorities remain vulnerable to violation of their
rights. The Committee has asked Romania, for example, for more effective measures to combat prejudice
against Gypsy children, whose school attendance is at very low levels.
The Committee also expressed concern about the care and legal protection afforded to immigrant or
refugee children, particularly unaccompanied children awaiting deportation in France. In Canada, the
Committee observed, the principles of non-discrimination have not always been given adequate weight by
those dealing with refugee and immigrant children.
Countries with federal systems face special legislative challenges when it comes to incorporating the
Convention into legal frameworks. In Argentina, for example, each of the 24 provinces would need to
bring its laws into conformity with the Convention; so far, only the province of Mendoza has passed a
new law on children and adolescents. In Canada, another federal system, the Convention is not part of the
nation's constitution or federal law, but can nonetheless be 'referred to' by authorities adjudicating cases
involving child rights.
The use of the Convention in court cases is still rare, although at least 16 countries say it can be - and
sometimes has been - invoked in court. A French court has used the Convention to argue that poor
teenage drop-outs should be covered by state social security, while an Australian judge cited the
Convention in deciding a child custody case. Nevertheless, as Nicaragua's representative candidly
admitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, most citizens are probably not even aware that
they can cite the Convention to support court cases.
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Justice for juveniles
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/cojustic.htm
THE PROGRESS OF NATIONS 1996
THE CONVENTION ON THE
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
unicef
Justice for juveniles
22 of the 43 countries have trained law enforcement officials and judges in the principles of the
Convention, improved juvenile correctional institutions, and/or no longer imprison children with adults.
"Children in the criminal justice system suffer the worst of both worlds.
They are denied many of the rights and considerations extended to
children in civil law, but lack the full rights of an adult in the criminal
justice system," writes Barry Anderson, a lawyer who heads the youth
crime section of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement
of Offenders in the United Kingdom.
In Rwanda, where the 1994 genocide and war claimed up to a million
lives, the Convention has been a vital instrument in protecting the rights
of children and youngsters under the age of 18 who are in the unusual
and desperate situation of being accused of genocide and murder. Citing
Convention clauses that protect children in conflict with the law,
UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross are working
with the Government to transfer most of the remaining 2,300 child
prisoners still being held in overcrowded adult prisons. Some 200 have already been moved to
UNICEF-run rehabilitation centres (February 1996). UNICEF also hired five lawyers to represent the
children.
Less dramatically, the Convention is changing the landscape of juvenile justice in a number of other
countries. At the suggestion of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Viet Nam's Ministry of Justice,
working with the Centre for Human Rights, UNICEF, NGOs and the National Committee for Protection
and Care of Children, is reviewing the judicial process for juveniles, and training judges, policemen, and
other legal professionals on how to apply the Convention. As part of reform in juvenile justice systems,
several countries, including Bolivia, France, the Philippines, and Romania, have trained judges and law
enforcement professionals on child rights.
The Spanish Constitutional Court, specifically citing article 40 of the Convention in a 1991 decision,
established legal guarantees for children between 12 and 16 years of age who are accused of breaking the
law. The Court called for a general overhaul of the juvenile justice system, which began the following
year.
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Justice for juveniles
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/cojustic.htm
Photo: Laws are needed to protect young prisoners.
©
Also on the basis of the Convention, Bolivia, El Salvador, Mexico, and Peru have enacted new justice
codes for children. Pakistan and Tunisia have also modified criminal laws regarding minors.
In 1993, France enshrined in law a new right of minors to express themselves in court in accordance with
article 12 of the Convention. Judicial practice in Belgium is moving towards ensuring the same right.
In virtually every one of the 43 country reports so far reviewed, the Committee on the Rights of the Child
has called for additional legal reform on the basis that national legislation relating to age set for criminal
responsibility and to the administration of juvenile justice was generally incompatible with articles 37 and
40 of the Convention. In the case of Peru, the Committee observed that suspects between the ages of 15
and 17 who are accused of terrorist acts do not have access to the specialized courts, district attorney
offices, and defence lawyers that are available to other juvenile offenders.
[Contents] - [Top of Page] - [Next Page]
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A treaty goes to war
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/cogowar.htm
THE PROGRESS OF NATIONS 1996
THE CONVENTION ON THE
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
unicef
A treaty goes to war
The influence of the Convention is proving especially important in situations where all normal protection
for children has broken down.
Sierra Leone, for example, cited the Convention in demobilizing child soldiers involved in the country's
civil war. UNICEF moved 1,500 young boys from Rwandan refugee camps in Zaire to civilian centres, to
prevent their involvement in hostilities. In Sri Lanka, the age of army recruitment was recently raised
from 15 to 18, and the Government used the Convention to resist army attempts to draft under-age
youths.
Photo: The right to be educated not exploited, to be at school not at war. ©
In an extraordinary new role for the Convention, two rebel groups - the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement and the South Sudan Independence Movement have agreed to abide by Convention
principles to protect women and children. Treaties bind only ratifying countries, but in this case two
internal contenders for political power have also accepted the Convention.
In another case of the Convention being applied in the midst of turmoil,
©
UNICEF has suspended assistance to education programmes in parts of
Afghanistan where fundamentalist Muslim groups have closed schools
for girls.
Children in many nations continue to be victims of adults' wars - losing
their parents and their homes, losing their childhood and their
opportunity for education, losing their limbs and their lives to the
machinery of violence. The Convention seeks to protect children from
these worst manifestations of adult failure. A small beginning has been
made.
and to school
13 of 43 countries have built the Convention into curricula or courses.
Many countries are now including human rights in their school curricula,
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A treaty goes to war
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/cogowar.htm
among them El Salvador, Portugal, and Sri Lanka. In 1991, Denmark also launched a campaign to
convey the principles of the Convention to the public; materials on child rights were distributed to all
young people from the first to the tenth grades.
Egypt is integrating principles of the Convention into the curricula of law and social work schools, as
well as police academies, while Zambia's School of Law plans to start a postgraduate diploma on human
rights, with course work devoted to child rights. Chile has adopted a different approach (1994), by
setting up an institution called the 'Defender of Schoolchildren' to deal with children's complaints against
school authorities.
[Contents] - [Top of Page] - [Next Page]
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The right to a name and a nationality
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/coname.htm
THE PROGRESS OF NATIONS 1996
THE CONVENTION ON THE
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
unicef
The right to a name and a nationality
7 of the 43 countries have made efforts to promote birth registration.
The right to a name and nationality is one of the most fundamental
human rights. But millions of children spend much of their lives without
this legal identity and the benefits and protections it affords.
Children who are not registered do not officially exist. On an individual
level, this can complicate enrolment in school and expose them to illegal
adoption, trafficking, exploitation as cheap labour, or involvement in
prostitution and criminal activities. Lack of a complete registration
system means that government, not knowing the true number of its
citizens, is hampered in planning for their needs.
Some governments are now giving the matter attention. In Ecuador,
where an estimated 1 in 10 children under the age of 12 are not legally
registered, the Government's Civil Registry has issued identity papers to a total of 322,600 children
between 1990 and 1995. To ensure that this is not a once-only effort, civil registration procedures have
been simplified and the Government has mounted a publicity campaign to stress the importance of a legal
identity for children.
Photo: The right to a name and nationality is enshrined in the Convention.©
New attempts to promote birth registration are also being made in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru, and the
Philippines, while Bolivia's Civil Registry recently issued new identity documents for 50,000 urban
children under the age of 16.
For those children whose births are registered, the Convention seeks to end the practice, common in both
industrialized and developing countries, of indicating on birth certificates whether the child was born out
of wedlock (leading to possible legal and social discrimination). The Governments of Lebanon and the
Philippines recently eliminated any reference to the marital status of a child's parents on identity papers.
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The right to know about rights
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/corights.htm
THE PROGRESS OF NATIONS 1996
THE CONVENTION ON THE
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
unicef
The right to know about rights
40 of the 43 countries are informing people about the Convention.
People who know their rights are better able to claim them. Making the Convention and its provisions
widely known is therefore an essential step in promoting children's rights.
Different countries have publicized the Convention in different ways. Viet Nam organized a 'Get to Know
the Convention' contest that drew 250,000 entries from schoolchildren. The Jamaica Coalition on the
Rights of the Child has conducted an island-wide public education campaign on child rights. Mozambique
staged 'national elections' on child rights in 1994.
In Nicaragua, a children's movement is attempting to educate children as well as adults about child rights.
In France, a media campaign is informing young people of their right to consult a lawyer. In Sweden,
copies of the Convention have been distributed throughout the country, including translations for
immigrant communities in Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish, Spanish, and Turkish.
Many other countries have also translated the Convention into local languages. In Poland, NGOs have
organized media crusades, including a regular television show that educates the public about the
Convention and targets abuses. Namibia has launched a set of family law booklets that are a popularized
version of the rights of children. In Colombia, the Government's public awareness campaign conducted
through the media, the bureaucracy, and the schools is called 'There Are No Small Rights'.
The notion of children having rights is a relatively new concept, and many countries are running training
programmes for teachers and social workers. Thousands of educators in the Dominican Republic are now
using the 'Teachers' Guide on the Rights of Children'. In Swaziland, child rights have become an integral
part of the training curriculum for rural health motivators, the country's largest group of social workers.
[Contents] [Top of Page] - [Next Page]
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NGOs submit alternative reports
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/coxubmit.htm
THE PROGRESS OF NATIONS 1996
THE CONVENTION ON THE
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
unicef
NGOs submit alternative reports
The Convention on the Rights of the Child specifically invites the involvement of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs). The response so far has shown that they are one of the main engines by which the
treaty can be translated into action. In several countries, NGOs are working with government to help
draft legislation and to disseminate the basic messages of the Convention.
In Nicaragua, legislative reform is being assisted by the Nicaraguan Coordinating Body for NGOs
Assisting Children. In the Philippines, a national programme for sexually exploited children and street
children is a joint effort by governmental, non-governmental, civic and church groups; this network
provides trained personnel, protection, referral, and community-based services that cover some 17 cities
and include approximately 300 local projects.
In the Caribbean, the Jamaican Coalition on the Rights of the Child helped to convince the Government
both to ratify the Convention and submit its report to the Committee on time. The Coalition also prepared
its own report. In several countries, such alternative reports have been effective in drawing attention to
child rights issues. In the United Kingdom, the Children's Rights Development Unit enlisted the support
of over 150 voluntary organizations in drawing up its 350-page alternative to the official report of the UK
Government.
In Belgium, human rights NGOs monitor Convention violations and frequently conduct inquiries. In
Jordan, a newly established group, 'NGOs for Child Rights', coordinates child rights promotion in the
country. In Zaire, NGOs have been active in exposing violations of human rights such as child labour in
mines and the rape of young girls.
[Contents] - [Next Page]
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The Convention: From acceptance to observance
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/coaccept.htm
THE PROGRESS OF NATIONS 1996
THE CONVENTION ON THE
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
unicef
The Convention: From acceptance to observance
The Convention on the Rights of the Child has become the
most rapidly accepted human rights treaty in history. As of
end-February 1996, it had been ratified by 187 out of 193
governments. Switzerland and the United States have
signed, indicating their intention to ratify. Only the Cook
Is., Oman, Somalia and the United Arab Emirates have
neither signed nor ratified.
The worldwide support from organizations of all kinds has
given the Convention momentum. But the Convention
does not bring change in the same way as a particular
project in a particular country or neighbourhood. It works by bringing changes in laws, institutions,
attitudes, and eventually in ethos, policies, and practices. The process may be slower, but the scale is
greater.
At the centre of this process is the international Committee on the Rights of the Child. All ratifying
governments are obliged to report to the Committee within two years - specifying the steps taken to bring
national laws, policy and practice into line with the principles of the Convention. The Committee then
examines the facts, taking evidence also from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and meets with
each government to discuss its child rights record. The 'concluding observations' of the Committee are
then made public. Five years after making a first report, all ratifying governments must again report to the
Committee.
Photo: The Convention is only six years old, but it is time to begin asking what practical
effects it is having on the lives of children around the world. ©
"This is an unspectacular, even bureaucratic process," says the former chair of the Committee, Hoda
Badran, "but it is aimed at bringing change inside national establishments - in national institutions,
national plans, national legal systems, national policies - and we have seen enough in five years to know
that it works."
The Convention on the Rights of the Child came into force only at the beginning of the 1990s.
Nonetheless, it is time to begin asking what practical effects the Convention is having on the lives of
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The Convention: From acceptance to observance
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/coaccept.htm
children around the world. Drawing on the reports of the 43 countries whose submissions had been
reviewed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as of end-1995, and on other sources, UNICEF
has compiled this preliminary account of how the Convention is gaining traction in the real world.
The Progress of Nations will continue to monitor the long march of the Convention from universal
acceptance to universal observance.
Reports by Jennifer Parmelee; data and research from Teresa Albanez, Maissa Hamed, Edita Nsubuga
and Rebeca Rios-Kohn (UNICEF).
[Contents] - [Top of Page] - [Next Page]
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Random Facts:
When she was a child, Mrs. Clinton collected money for UNICEF at Halloween. This was her
first experience with the UN
Comments on Eleanor Roosevelt and Univ. Dec. By HRC
1. Column, 10/14-15
One thing I've learned since becoming First Lady is that wherever I go, Elanor Roosevelt
has surely been there before me. I've been to farms in lowa and factories in Michigan where Mrs.
Roosevelt paid a visit half a century ago. I've been to schools and colleges named for Mrs.
Roosevelt and walked the halls of hospitals she toured before I was born.
Even when I go to other countries, Mrs. Roosevelt has doubtless been there first. When
my daughter and I went to Pakistan and India last spring, we discovered that Eleanor Roosevelt
had traveled there in 1952, and even had written a book about her trip.
2. Column, 10/14-15
Traveling now through South America, I find myself thinking often about Mrs. Roosevelt.
And I'm convinced that if she were still alive today, nothing would thrill her more than coming to
watch children perform at the Circus School in Brazil. It's a place I'm visiting on this trip where
runaway children learn the principles of discipline and teamwork, and build self-confidence
through acrobatics and trapeze training. Not only do these children show a renewed interest in
education and improved attendance in school, they perform before sellout crowds every weekend.
3. Column, 10/14-15
Wherever she went, Mrs. Roosevelt celebrated the richness of the human experience. She
appreciated every person's potential to do something great with very little. Perhaps that is why
people all over the world, including here in South America, remember her with such admiration
and fondness. She was in the words of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, "a woman for all times
and all people."
4. Column, 6/4/96
Historians Doris Kearns goodwn and Blanche Wiesen cook both have shared their
thoughts about Eleanor Roosevelt, someone I wish I could have talked to in person about the role
of the First Lady. In fact, I occasionally have imaginary conversations with Mrs. Roosevelt to try
to figure out what she would do in my shoes. She usually responds by telling me to buck up or at
least to grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros.
5. United Nations Economic and Social Council Chamber, 12/10/97
Some of humanity's greatest lessons emerge only after the deepest tragedies. This
Declaration took shape in a world ravaged by the horrors of militraism and facism. In the wake of
the most violent revelations of the depths to which human being can dehumanize one another, the
world as whole was ready at last to agree upon those standards for human rights.
6. United Nations Economic and Social Council Chamber, 12/10/97
Thankfully, in the half-century since the birth of the Declaration, we have as a global
people managed progressively to expand the circle of full human dignity. Because of this
document, individuals and nations alike have a standard by which to measure fundamental rights.
Many of the countries that have emerged in the last 50 years have drawn inspiration from the
groundwork for the world's war crimes tribunals. And it has prompted governments to set up
their own commissions to safeguard basic liberties.
7. United Nations Economic and Social Council Chamber, 12/10/97
And yet some critics continue to dismiss women's suffering as minor. But are they? In
1958 Eleanor Roosevelt wrote: Where do human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so
close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of
the individual person -- the neighborhood he lives in, the factory, farm, or office where he works.
Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity,
equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little
meaning anywhere.
8. POTUS Remarks in honor of Human Rights Day, 12/9/97
Under the wise, comassionate leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt, half a century ago 18
delegates from China to Lebanon, Chile to Ukraine forged the first international agreement on the
rights of humankind. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the
Universal Declaration without a single dissenting vote. I am very proud that the First Lady, who
has traveled the world to advance human rights, especially for women and young girls, will take
part in tomorrrow's United Nations commemoration.
Over the past half-century, the Declaration's 30 articles have formed a constellation of
principles to which all people can aspire. They have entered the consciousness of people all
around the world. They're now invoked routinely in constitutions and courts. They set a
yardstick of humanity's "best practice" against which we must all now measure ourselves.
But as Eleanor Roosevelt said, words on paper bring no guarantees, and I quote: unless
the people know them, unless the people understand them, unless the people demand that they be
lived. Promoting respect for human rights is a fulfilling -- but never fulfilled -- obligation. Fifty
years since the charter was forged, humn rights still persist. Humn rights are still at risk from
Burma to Nigeria, from Belarus to China. Although more than half the world's people now live
under governments of their own choosing, democracy's roots are still fragile in some countries;
others are besieged by forces ranging from drug cartels to organized crime. And even in
democracies, human rights, which so often mean minority rights, are not guaranteed.
9. POTUS Remarks in honor of Human Rights Day, 12/9/97
Finally, I commend the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Foundation for their efforts to
teach a new generation of Americans that the future of human rights is "in their hands." Eleanor
Roosevlet understood that our greatest strength abroad was the power of our example at home,
our committment to work together across the divides to create one from many and opportunity
for all.
10. Dedication of Eleanor Roosevelt College, 1/26/95
I hope each of you associated with this college will continue to have, opportunities to
consider the many ways in which these extraordinary public servants helped lead our nation
through very difficult, stressful times. There is no comparison to the circumstances in which my
parents--your grandparents--found themselves in facing the Great Depression, facing the second
World War. What never flagged throughout that period, no matter how difficult circumstances
were was the faith that the American people had, fueled in large measure by their confidence in
themselves and their future despite the odds that America would continue to be great, America
would grow, America would solve its problems.
11. Dedication of Eleanor Roosevelt College, 1/26/95
I am a die hard Eleanor Roosevelt fan. I have read her autobiography, her newspaper
columns, and many books about her and President Roosevelt. And from the first time I can
remember hearing about her, I have always admired her. I was born in 1947, the year before she
was sent by President Truman to serve on the United States delegation of the United Nations.
Once ther, she oversaw the writing and passage of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. I have
also read that document which she championed and I'm always struck at how this woman at the
end of the second World War, the beginning of the Cold War, continued to emphasize the themes
that she had sounded throughout the years. Namely, that we must cooperate, we must find ways
to work together.
12. Dedication of Eleanor Roosevelt College, 1/26/95
I almost cannot even imagine the courage it took for her, at the dawn of the Cold War, to
persuade delegates from so many different nations to sign their names on behalf of human rights.
Although I admired Mrs. Roosevelt over the years, I must say that over the past few years I have
felt an even greater affection for her. And have taken on occasion to having imaginary
conversations with her. Now I am sure that there will be a talk show host somewhere who will
point out with great glee that I have gone over the edge and am talking to myself and talking to
Mrs. Roosevelt on a regular basis, but I believe the world, and particularly our country, would be
better off if we all spent a little time talking with Mrs. Roosevelt and less time yelling at each
other and listening to people yell at each other. And on occasion when confronted with a
particular situation I might say to Mrs. Roosevelt, "Oh my goodness, what do I do now?" And in
my imaginary conversation my mind's eye -- she would listen to me calmly and look at me
seriously and now say very much. I would then go on doing the best that I could and another
occasion would arise when I would attempt to seek some pearls of wisdom from this woman who
see med to embody grace under pressure and I might say, "how did you handle this sort of thing.
How did you deal with all of the concerns that you had and all of the difficulties that you faced?"
And again in my mind's eye I would see her listening calmly and not saying very much. And finally
the more I learned about her the more I understood what she dealt with on a daily basis as she
persistently and passionately carried forward with what she believed would make the world better.
That she could not answer my questions because in her view one simply went about life and did
what was expected and did it to the best of one's ability.
So every time I begin to harbor thoughts like, "why haven't we solved this problem by
now?" I imagine Mrs. Roosevelt shaking her heard and saying something like, "the thing always to
remember is to do the thing you think you cannot do." Or perhaps I see her again in my mind's eye
saying, "these problems that we faced today are problems that we faced in the past. We have
made progress, there are many, many improvements in the way that we treat one another, and we
know we have more to do but continue to persist." I have found great inspiration in her example
not only for the questions I ask and the role in which I find myself now, but more than that for the
humanity and the dignity with which she led her life.
13. Dedication of Eleanor Roosevelt College, 1/26/95
She was often attacked and criticized but there was never any confusion in her own mind
about what constituted a meaningful life. She refused to be categorized or stereotyped which of
course greatly frustrated her critics. She was one of those rare people who strikes that elusive
balance between "me" and "we." Between our rights and expectations as individuals and our
obligations to the larger community. She conceited herself as a citizen. Someone who was there
trying to make sure that democracy worked well. Someone who wanted to help educate other
citizens about what they could do.
14. Women and the United Nations Conference, 3/14/95
It is impossible to think about the history of the United Nations, or the role of women in
the United Nations, without thinking of Eleanor Roosevelt When she came to the United States
there were many who dismissed her arrival. They thought she came as a token, the widow of a
great President, and she faced considerable personal challenges in undertaking the work she did.
We know from various histories and from Mrs. Roosevelt's own writing that she was assigned to
a committee where they siad she could do no harm. She was assigned to the Third Committee:
the Social, Cultural and Humanitarian committee. Apparently, assigned by men who had no idea
what she was capable of doing. She made from the very begining it her mission to insure that the
committee, which deals so directly with the stuff of life, was one that had a very important
portfolio. We also know that she was alternately perplexed and amused by what she viewed as an
obsession with rule making among her male peers. As the men around here would sometimes
argue for hours over matters that Mrs. Roosevelt felt did not deserve minutes of conversation, she
would sit and knit.
It turned out to be not only a controversial job for her but one thta took tremendous
diplomatic skill. Among her critics was the very powerful American John Foster Dulles. Who at
the end of the Assembly finally did say to her and I quote "I must tell you that when you were
apointed I thought it terrible, and now I think your work has been fine." She wrote about her
reaction o that statement in a letter home, and I quote, "so against the odds that women inch
forward
Her role within the Assembly, although sometimes not welcome, and certainly never easy,
was very important. She out worked most of her colleagues. She did turn that Third Committee
into one of the most important of the entire Assembly. She became instrumental in decisions
about the fate of refugees. And she negotiated over many very sensitive issues with a great deal
of success.
Her greatest achievement, as we all know, was to help persuade 55 nations to sign a bill of
human rights, something tht had never been done before. Even with her successes she was under
no illusions about the capacity of this organization, or any government body or agency, to effect
changes on its own. The United Nations she said soon after its founding, is "a piece of machinery
and the peoples of the world have to make it work You make it work by what youdo in your own
communities, by then things you build there which spread out through your representatives into
your national government."
That observations by Mrs. Roosevelt hold special weight today when all nations are
grappling with a range of human problems at a time of shrinking resources and increased global
competition. There is no panacea, no magic bullet that will suddenly empower women or free
people from the bondage of inhuman living conditions. Progress depends on our working
together in partnership to create conditions around the world that enable women, men and
children to reach their God given potentials and flourish within their own families and societies.
15. Women and the United Nations Conference, 3/14/95
If one looks at among Mrs. Roosevelt's great accomplishments certainly the Bill of Human
Rights continues to challenge all of us. Although international humanitarian law had been
evolving before the United Nations, human rights in general and women's rights in particular,
were not widely recognized. On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly adopted a Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and Eleanor Roosevelt played a major roel in the drafting and
adoption.
16. Women and the United Nations Conference, 3/14/95]
In paying tribute to Eleanor Roosevelt, as part of this conference, we would do well to
consider her great vision, her compassion and her common sense approach to solving very
difficult human problems. For her, no political obstacle was too large, no cultural gap was too
wide, no difference of opinion was too serious to overcome. And as Ambassador Albright has
reminded us, no controversy WS to be avioded. One of my favorite quotations from Mrs.
Roosevelt is that she often said her work was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
HRC Comments on Children
1. Fifteen Minute Speech, 7/19/??
I've just returned from a trip to Central Europe where I visited several countries that are
making the difficult transition from communism to democracy. Even there, citizens and
governments are recognizing that the needs of children must come first if their countries are to
become flourishing democracies.
As a modern society, we know more about what children need to develop than ever
before. But we still have too few organized ways of supporting parents in the most important
work they do. We have not figured out how to replace the extended family, clan or village that
looked out for children in earlier times. As a result, many parents don't get the information or the
help they need to become the best possible mothers and fathers that they can be.
It is time to make a change for our children's sake. Advances in technology and the global
economy along with other developments in society have brought us much good, but they have
also strained the fabric of family life, leaving us and our children poorer in many ways.
2. Fifteen Minute Speech, 7/19/??
We all have roles to play in finding ways to make sure all children fulfill their God-given
potentials. When it comes to children we all have experience -- and we can all claim a kind of
expertise. We have all been children. We all love our children. We all have visions and
aspirations for what they can become. We think of and talk about them constantly, during coffee
breaks, PTA meetings, on front porches and phones, in letters and e-mail. No other subject takes
so much of our time, and touches our souls so deeply.
3. Fifteen Minute Speech, 7/19/??
Our children are, in the beginning and in the end, the best reason for our being, the
greatest of all our gifts and works. There is no subject more important, no issue that should be
more decisive, than how we see and treat our children. Children have no vote; they have no say in
the political, business and economic decisions made by our nation. That is why we can and must
be their voice.
4. Remarks at Roma Children Foundation, 10/11/98
I have always been struck by how street children are able to survive in conditions that
would often not be possible for us. And seeing the children here today, as I have, I have
seen the same brightness and intelligence, and quickness that enable them to survive
under difficult circumstances, and will permit them with proper help to become
productive citizens in this society.
I know that many Roma children are particularly at risk. I have visited programs for
Roma children in the Czech Republic and in Hungary, and now here, in Bulgaria. And I
am so impressed that you see so clearly that all of our children in today's world have to
be given opportunities to succeed. Because every child's future will affect our own.
5. Chicago Public Schools Principal Luncheon, 6/3/98
I have a wonderful quote I heard recently from the choir director of a youth choir in
Oakland California. When he was justifying his efforts before the school board to get
additional funds to enroll more kids in his choir because the choir had taken off, and
more kids wanted to get in. He said, "You know a child can be in a gang, or a gang of
singers."
We've got to create safe places where the children can find their own identities again:
maybe on the sports team and on the field, and maybe in a choir as well, or maybe
sitting quietly and practicing an instrument, or trying to draw something that a teacher
has already modeled. And I think that it's so critical in these days when so many kids
have so much going on in their lives. You know. You know what they bring to school.
And, it's not just poor kids, it's all kids. There's just so much going on around them that
they have to sort out:
6. International Development Girls' Education Conference
In Bangladesh, I visited a school run by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement
Committee, a non-governmental organization that believes that education -- especially
girls' education -- is a pre-condition for economic development. Because of that belief,
some of the BRAC schools have been burned by extremist groups. But the schools
keep being rebuilt and families keep sending their children to attend.
I also saw where the Bangladesh government is attempting to provide incentives for
families to keep their daughters in school. Families get food each week if they send their
children, particularly their girls, to school. To help give girls the chance to go to
secondary school, the government actually deposits a small amount of money in a family
banking account as long as the daughters attend school.
I have seen the results of President Museveni's promise of Universal Primary Education
in Uganda. I have been in classrooms that are absolutely filled with children -- 70, 75,
80 third graders -- a very big challenge to any teacher. But instead of being frustrated
the teachers I have met have been proud. Proud because children are coming to school
and everyone is working very hard to create the materials and train additional teachers
to meet this challenge. Overwhelming pride is felt because for the first time, more girls
than boys are attending school.
There have also been results in Guatemala where the government and the Foundation
for Sugar Producers teamed up to offer small scholarships to girls in rural schools
because they knew that the drop out rate between the first and second grades for girls
in those schools with scholarships was only one percent compared to 30 percent
nationwide. In another Guatemalan program, afternoon school sessions have been
introduced to accommodate girls who must carry out domestic and agricultural work in
the mornings.
In Malawi, the villagers were not only asked why girls are not attending school, they
were asked to come up with solutions. They performed plays and skits. They waived
school fees. They took responsibility for enrolling girls in school. As a result, enrollment
increased from 50 to 83 percent.
In the Community Schools Program in Egypt, the number of girls enrolled in school
increased from 2,000 to 35,000 because schools were located closer to homes, making
them safer and more accessible. Curricula were designed so that they were culturally
appropriate and approved by village leaders. Girls were trained to be sure that they
were understanding how important this gift of education was and parents were asked to
become actively involved as well.
As we look across the globe, therefore, we see success stories everywhere. Yet, right
now, there are still 100 million children worldwide who are out of school, and
two-thirds of them are girls. 900 million people cannot read or write, and sixty percent
of them are women. Two-thirds of the children who complete less than four years of
primary education are girls and countless others do not even have access to a primary
school, let alone a secondary school.
7. International Girls' Education Conference
I remember so well being in a small village about 40 minutes outside Lahore, Pakistan
where I visited a school that had been built to give the girls in that area primary
education. I sat out in the courtyard in front of the school and talked with mothers of
children who attended. One mother told me about her 10 children -- 5 girls and 5 boys.
Her worry was that she had sent all of her children to school, to primary school. And
when her boys graduated from primary school they had gone on. They had gone to the
nearest secondary school continuing their education. But when her daughters finished
the village school, there were no secondary schools nearby for girls and she was not
willing to send her daughters off alone to attend school far away. So, she asked me, and
she asked all of the officials who were with me, if they could please have a secondary
school built for girls near their village.
8. National Conference on Youth Violence
Every young man or woman, every boy or girl, has a God given potential that we at our
herald give up on. And it is incumbent upon us, as representatives of the adult community of this
society, to recommit ourselves to youth. The young people who are here are pledging to you, "If
you don't give up on yourself, we will not give up on you."
9. National Conference on Youth Violence
We see it everyday as we pick up our newspapers. I picked up a newspaper here in
Washington today and read about another thirteen year old gunned down on the street corner. In
Washington last summer, gun shots were fired at a public swimming pool packed with children
trying to escape the 90 degree heat. A few months ago, a four-year old girl was fatally shot in the
head when groups of youngsters opened fire on an elementary school playground. And during the
past week a one year-old was grazed by a bullet from a gunfight. That thirteen year-old who
died, it appears his killer is also thirteen years-old. What does it say about a society that has
graduated from taunts and yells and thrown punches and raised fists--, that all of us remember
from school yard fights, neighborhood fights in the past. To thirteen year-olds being gunned
down on street corners, a four year olds being killed on playgrounds, and one year olds being
grazed by bullets.
10. National Conference on Youth Violence
Let's just stop for a minute and ask ourselves, "Haven't we wasted enough lives, haven't
we lost enough young men and womento prison instead of college? Haven't we turned our back
too many times on the God given potential of every one of our young people?" I don't care what
race they are, I don't care where they live, every single young person in this country, has a spark
about them that we have for too long allowed to be extinguished by a level of violence, hatred,
and divisiveness that still stalks this country. We can do much better than that, all you
have to do is look at the faces of the young people around you today. We know we can do
better. But we cannot unless we stand up and are willing to be counted. I hope you will not only
attend this conference, I hope you will not only work on what needs to be done back in your own
hometowns, I hope you will take the time to let your member of Congress know why you are
here, what you stand for.
HRC Stories
1. Column, 3/24/98
For most Ugandans, the night of October 9, 1996, marked the end of a day celebrating the
country's Independence Day. For Angelina Acheng, it was the beginning of a nightmare. That
evening, her 14 year old daughter, Charlotte, was kidnapped from St. Mary's School in Aboke,
Uganda, by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a terrorist group based in Southern Sudan that
abuses civilians in Northern Uganda. The kidnappers broke the windows of this girls' boarding
school. They tied up the girls, all of whom where younger than 16. They beat those who dared
to cry. And then they took away 139 of them -- 75 percent of the student body -- and sent them
into a life of unspeakable horror. Many, like Charlotte, have not returned.
When I met Angelina at the White House a few weeks before I came to Uganda, she
spoke movingly about her daughter and told me about the organization she and other local
parents had formed -- the Concerned Parents Association. They work to save their children and
all the other children held captive by this group. Since 1994, with 10,000 children in Uganda.
These children are literally being snatched away from their homes. The boys are used in battle as
human shields. The girls are sent into slave labor, raped and given away as "wives" to rebel
commanders. They are often forced to kill other children who don't obey or -- worse yet -- who
try to escape.
The LRA invokes the name of the Lord, but there is no greater sin than making children
kill children or even the parents who brought them into this world. Followers of the LRA call
themselves soldiers, but they are cowards. Only cowards would hide behind children in battle.
The plight of these children is part of a growing and alarming trend. It used to go without
saying that innocent women and children were not supposed to be the targets of war; now
increasingly, they are not only targets but even compelled to participate.
One of Charlotte's classmates who managed to escape talked about what happened when
another girl tried to flee: "The girl was brought in front of us, and the rebels told us to stomp her
to death. We killed the poor innocent girl If we did not kill the girl, we were going to get shot
by guns. We prayed for that girl in our hears, silently, and asked God to pardon us and forgive us
because it was not our will to kill her."
Another rescued student from St. Mary's school said, "I saw people's legs being cut off
with either a panga or an ax. I saw a yound baby of a few months held in hand and being beaten
to death against a tree. Innocent people were being killed in a way I never thought a human being
could (act toward) another human being."
One girl simply wrote: "I'm pleading with you to find a way of stopping this rebel activity
so that we children of Northern Uganda could also share in the peace that other children around
the world are sharing in We need peace."
2. Makerere University, Uganda, 3/25/98
There are three children with us today that I just had a chance to meet with before I came
out to see you. Their names are Isaac and Janet and Betty. They were kidnapped by the LRA in
the north. They managed to escape, eventually finding refuge. As I looked into their faces and
their eyes, I saw the faces and eyes of children the world over. And I thought to myself as I
looked at these young men and women of Uganda that we owe them and the thousands more like
them everything we can do to make sure that they, too, have a chance, like the children I saw
yesterday, to grow up in peace, to be educate, and to look forward to their own families and
futures.
3. Dedication of Eleanor Roosevelt College, 1/26/95
I remember particularly a story that Doris relates in her book. When Mrs. Roosevelt was
in California she went once with Helen Gahagan Douglas a writer, an actress, and later a
congresswoman from California to the San Juaquin Valley. They were going to tour migrant labor
camps and they were driving along when Mrs. Roosevelt spotted a row of migrants' shacks. She
asked to stop the car so she could get out. She marched across the a field of mud and muck to
inspect the migrants' living conditions. And as she approached one of the workers realized who
she was and said matter-of-factly, "Oh Mrs. Roosevelt, you've come to see us." It seemed
perfectly normal that the President's wife would get out of a car and walk across a field to talk to
migrant workers.
4. Dedication of Eleanor Roosevelt College, 1/26/98
One of my favorite stories, again, takes place in California. She went to the West Coast to
tour this part of the country on behalf of the President shortly after Pearl Harbor was bombed.
You can imagine the swelling fear that existed in our state here. You can imagine the prejudice
against Japanese-Americans. Editorials described Japanese-Americans as traitors, spies, and
worse. Their houses and businesses were searched and many Californians were convinced that
their former neighbors were now their enemies. As the hysteria mounted, Mrs. Roosevelt took it
upon herself to pose with a group of Japanese-Americans. She issued a statement accompanying
the photo that said, "Let's be honest. There is a chance now for great hysteria against minority
groups -- loyal Americans born Japanese and German. If we treat them unfairly and make them
unhappy we may shake their loyalty which should be built up." This act of honesty and courage so
enraged so many in California that the Los Angeles Times essentially called for her removal from
public life. But of course she continued to speak out against the unfair treatment of anyone --
Japanese-Americans, German-Americans, anyone who she believed was mistreated. And she
particularly worked to reverse her husband's policy of internment camps here in California and
elsewhere.
5. Fifteen Minute Speech, 7/19/?
In Kansas City, where I was part of a conference to discuss what we all can do to help
children, I met educators, parents, business leaders and community activists who have already
achieved much on behalf of their children. I heard how the city government offers employees up
to four hours of paid annual leave to participate in their children's school activities; how dedicated
volunteers are staffing evening and summer youth programs to keep their kids off the street and
out of trouble; and how the local newspaper is dedicating many resources, reporters and pages of
newsprint to cover children's issues thoroughly.
In Kansas City, I saw billboards all over town asking citizens the question, "Is it good for
the children?" It is a question more Americans should ask themselves before making decisions for
their families, their communities, and their country.
6. Fifteen Minute Speech, 7/19/?
At another children's conference in Colorado, I learned how the state, businesses and
community groups are cooperating to create better child care options; mentorships for new p
parents; and health care coverage for children all over Colorado.
7. National Conference on Youth Violence
Look how programs like Police Partnerships for Children, programs where police officers
will take their time to work with young people, coupling that with community policing where we
again get police officers on the street. Somebody that a young person can hopefully find some
support from, but if we turn on our back on these partnerships that police are offering, we lose an
opportunity to transform our police officers not only into instruments of punishment but also
instruments of prevention.
8. Remarks for Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 11/25/96
""Yesterday in chiang Rai I visited a program started by the faculty at this university called
Thai Women of Tomorrow. It offers girls education, vocational training and options for jobs --
alternatives to desolate and desperate lives of prostitution. Most of all, it encourages parents to
appreciate their daughters as people not property, and to give girls a sense of their own value and
promise."
Earlier today at the new life Center I saw another program that is bringing hope to young
women who are receiving education and training that will allow them to pursue their life
ambibitons with confidence and dignity."
"When I was in Chiang Rai yesterday I visited some hill tribes in villages outside the city.
In one village I met young women who participate in the Thai Women of Tomorrow program. I
also spoke to a local businessman who supports the program fianciailly. He said that he got
involved out of sense of charity. But within months, he said, he was surprised to find that the girls
were hard-working, quick to learn new skills, and determined to make better lives for themselves.
Now he has decided to open a factory in Chiang Rai that will employ girls from the school"
9. -- Remarks at UNICEF 50th Anniversary, 1/26/98
"Because we believed it could be done, we can look to the 10th anniversary of the World
Summit for Children, knowing that the majority of goals have already been met by the majority of
nations. Because we believed it could be done, the percentage of children immunized against
killer diseases has dramatically increased -- to 80 percent. And because we believed it could be
done, a full 2.5 million more children will live past their 5th birthdays this year than they did just
eight years ago.
At the Jose Fabella [Fa BAY ya] Memorial Hospital in the Philippines, I met mothers who
were learning about breast feeding their newborns. In Senegal, I visited a village that is improving
health, education, and nutrition especially for women and girls. And in Nepal, I went to the
Kalimati Clinic, where Save the Children kits are helping women deliver healthy babies."
Eleanor Roosevelt Book
1.
Her work for UNICEF forced Mrs. Roosevelt into tightrope walking between pressure
from other nations and her obligation to represent the American position. She suddenly became
aware of 575 million children in distress in the Middle East, the Far East, Africa, and Latin
America who had been "ill-fed, ill-clad, and ill-housed for generations."
2.
Mrs. Roosevelt was supposed to speak at Bushnell Hall in Hartford, Connecticut, about
the United Nations:
Three thousand people were expected. But by the time Mrs. Roosevelt
arrived, only about three hundred people were scattered through the vast
auditorium. Mrs. Roosevelt arrived, stepped onto the stage and looked
around. "Oh let's all come down front and be a big family," she said with
her big smile, motioning the scant audience to come forward. Then she
gave her speech. Afterward, someone asked her if she felt disappointed
when after taking the trouble to come to our city, only such a small crowd
appeared. "If I can reach one person only with my message about he
United Nations," said Eleanor Roosevelt, "I feel that my efforts were
rewarded and my time was not wasted."
3.
In June 1940, Clarence Pickett, head of the Friends' Service Committee, asked Mrs.
Roosevelt to bring together leaders of various groups for a concerted effort to rescue European
children. She called a meeting and helped organize the United States Committee for the Care of
European Children, of which she became honorary chairman. This was the only secular
organization established exclusively to aid refugee children. It was designed to bring them from
Britain, Finland, Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France and place them in foster homes in
the United States. On behalf of the committee, Mrs. Roosevelt urged Americans to take theminto
their homes and to request that Congress ease their admission nto the United States. She
complained of "horrid legal details" which slowed down the rescue program: "Red tape should
not be used to trip up little children on their way to safety."
4.
After the invalidation of the NRA by the Supreme Court had left children unprotected, she
wrote in a telegram to a member of the Houston Labor Standards Committee:
The President has said in letters sent out to people who have asked him as to his
stand the obvious method of maintaining the recent gains made by NRA codes is
through ratification of the child labor amendment As far as I am concerned, I
have taken every opportunity to reiterate my stand in favor of the ratification of
the child labor amendment.
Where the exploitation of children was concerned, she accepted no compromise. In reply
to critics who claimed that the time was inopportune for ratification because families were
dependent on the earnings of their children during the depression. Mrs. Roosevelt said that such
arguments should not influence the passing of fundamental laws. To those who objected to
increased interference by the government family life, she said, "We already tell people they must
have their children vaccinated."
5. Mrs. Roosevelt devoted her long career to defending the rights of labor and minority groups,
to seeing that adequate housing and standards of child welfare and education were maintained,
and that all groups could benefit from the same opportunities. In these activities she regarded
herself not as a crusader but as a citizen performing her basic duties in the democratic
community Because of her early association with the Women's Trade Union League and the
National Consumers' League, Mrs. Roosevelt took a special interest in the abolition of child labor
and the protection of the rights of women in industry. One of her more important goals in the
1930's was the ratification of the Child Labor Amendment, a continuation of the long struggle.
"No civilization should be based on the labor of children." she said at her press conference.
6. Appropriately, President Truman nominated the former first lady to be one of America's
delegates to the United Nations. At the UN, her name bacame synonymous with the effort to
compose a declaration of human rights embodying standards that civilized humankind would
accept as sacred and inalienable. For three years, she argues, debated, lobbied and compromised
until finally on December 10, 1948, the document she had fundamentally shaped passed the
General Assembly. Delegates rose in standing ovation to the woman who more than anyone else
had come to symbolize the cause of human rights throughout the world. Even those from the
United States who had most opposed her nomination to the delegation applauded her efforts. "I
want to say that I take back everything I ever said about her," Senator Arthur Vandenberg of
Michigan commented "and believe me, it's been plenty." At times a figure of scorn and ridicule
during the New Deal, Roosevelt was now fast becoming a national heroine, even to former
enemies.
7. From Mrs. Roosevelt's Column
A little incident at one of the picnics, which I have held annually for the Wiltwyck boys at
Hyde Park will, I think, emphasize how much a personal contact means for these youngsters
whose background is often such an unhappy one. As I was greeting the boys on their arrival at
Hyde Park, one little white boy stopped in front of me and said:
"Mrs. Roosevelt, do you remember me?"
"Yes," I answered, "I remeber all of you. I have seen your school and many of you were
here last year. Of course, I remeber you."
The little boy with a determined face, looked me straight in the eye and said: "Mrs.
Roosevelt what's my name?"
I had to explain that there were 100 boys and that I could not remember all of their names
because I was an old lady and my memory was not as good as it once was.
He then told me his name. But he was so anxious to be identified by someone that, within
five minutes, he stood before me again demanding:
"Mrs. Roosevelt, what's my name?"
To have a friend who knows you by name gives you a sense that you are not alone in the
world. This is above all else what every single one of the Wiltwyck boys needs.
here last year. Of course, I remeber you."
The little boy with a determined face, looked me straight in the eye and said: "Mrs.
Roosevelt what's my name?"
I had to explain that there were 100 boys and that I could not remember all of their names
because I was an old lady and my memory was not as good as it once was.
He then told me his name. But he was so anxious to be identified by someone that, within
five minutes, he stood before me again demanding:
"Mrs. Roosevelt, what's my name?"
To have a friend who knows you by name gives you a sense that you are not alone in the
world. This is above all else what every single one of the Wiltwyck boys needs.
8. From National Women's Democratic Club Reception Speech, 1/10/95
One time Mrs. Roosevelt was invited scheduled to speak at the clubhouse on Dupont
Circle and Edith Helms (Mrs. Roosevelt's Social Secretary) was asked to introduce her. She
couldn't think of what to asy and Lindy told her, "Don't worry something will come to mind."
And when the time came to introduce Mrs. Roosevelt, Edith Helms stood up and simply said:
"She is here." And that's all she needed to say.
9. Eleanor Roosevelt was a busy lady. In 1947, for example, her regular activities included:
serving as a delegate to the United Nations; going on a long lecture tour; hosting a radio show
and a television show; writing a daily newspaper column and a monthly magazine column;
working on a multi-volume autobiography; serving on the boards of several organizations; and
regularly making public appearances at various events.
Thus, that same year, when parts of the world were enmeshed in turmoil, the columnist Josephus
Daniels wrote that the most startling news in the world came not from Turkey or Tibet, but from
Hyde Park, where Eleanor Roosevelt had uttered the words, "I am tired." Mrs. Roosevelt wrote
Daniels a letter explaining that, "I had been walking around with pneumonia. so it was true that I
was weary. I am fine, now, however," she added, and she quickly resumed a schedule so busy,
that it had once led her husband to pray, "O Lord, make Eleanor tired."