Today, 10 December 2018, is the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was a global response to the atrocities of the Second World War that led to the horror of the Holocaust. Our namesake, Monsieur René Cassin, was the Declaration’s co-author.
The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has marked the anniversary with this statement:
Fifty years ago this week, when Rene Cassin, the Jewish jurist and father of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, he asked an essential question: “Are we justified today, twenty years after the Universal Declaration, in declaring ourselves satisfied?” Cassin went on to declare that he was far from satisfied, concluding that, “for the establishment of peace and human dignity, each of us must work and fight to the last”.
Today, seventy years after the Universal Declaration, we must likewise be emphatic that we cannot declare ourselves satisfied, while there remain men and women deprived of their dignity all over the world. Wherever there are individuals, families and communities who are dehumanised or harassed, we must work and fight on their behalf, to the last.
René Cassin UDHR 70th anniversary event – Jewish Human Rights Heroes
Jewish Museum, Monday 10 December 2018
Anniversary reading:
- The Women Behind The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – René Cassin’s Hannah Swirsky writing on RightsInfo
- 70 Years on from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – It’s needed more than ever – interview with René Cassin’s Mia Hasenson-Gross on RightsInfo
- Seventy years of Human Rights inspired by a Jewish pioneer – René Cassin’s Hannah Swirsky writing in Jewish News
- Jewish leaders mark 70 years since Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Jewish News
