René Cassin was a visionary. He understood before many others that no lasting peace is possible if respect for human rights is not ensured.
“Our Declaration stands as the most vigorous, the most necessary protest of Humanity against the atrocities and oppressions that so many millions of human beings have been victims of throughout the centuries, and especially during and between the two wars.”
This is how René Cassin spoke at the Palais de Chaillot on December 9, 1948, to present to the United Nations General Assembly the draft of which he was the rapporteur and which was adopted the following day, December 10, 70 years ago.
Like a bridge between the tragedies of the past and the gathering clouds we see, he invites us to reaffirm the universality and permanence of fundamental rights.
