specific rights and their limitations. Accordingly, the Committee transmitted to the Commission on Human
Rights draft articles of an international declaration and an international convention on human rights. At its
second session, in December 1947, the Commission decided to apply the term "International Bill of Human
Rights" to the series of documents in preparation and established three working groups: one on the
declaration, one on the convention (which it renamed "covenant") and one on implementation. The
Commission revised the draft declaration at its third session, in May/June 1948, taking into consideration
comments received from Governments. It did not have time, however, to consider the covenant or the
question of implementation. The declaration was therefore submitted through the Economic and Social
Council to the General Assembly, meeting in Paris.
By its resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948, the General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights as the first of these projected instruments.
Towards the International Covenants
On the same day that it adopted the Universal Declaration, the General Assembly requested the Commission
on Human Rights to prepare, as a matter of priority, a draft covenant on human rights and draft measures
of implementation. The Commission examined the text of the draft covenant in 1949 and the following year
it revised the first 18 articles, on the basis of comments received from Governments. In 1950, the General
Assembly declared that "the enjoyment of civic and political freedoms and of economic, social and cultural
rights are interconnected and interdependent" (resolution 421 (V), sect. E). The Assembly thus decided to
include in the covenant on human rights economic, social and cultural rights and an explicit recognition of
the equality of men and women in related rights, as set forth in the Charter. In 1951, the Commission
drafted 14 articles on economic, social and cultural rights on the basis of proposals made by Governments
and suggestions by specialized agencies. It also formulated 10 articles on measures for implementation of
those rights under which States parties to the covenant would submit periodic reports. After a long debate
at its sixth session, in 1951/1952, the General Assembly requested the Commission "to draft two Covenants
on Human Rights, . . . one to contain civil and political rights and the other to contain economic, social and
cultural rights" (resolution 543 (VI), para. 1). The Assembly specified that the two covenants should contain
as many similar provisions as possible. It also decided to include an article providing that "all peoples shall
have the right of self-determination" (resolution 545 (VI)).
The Commission completed preparation of the two drafts at its ninth and tenth sessions, in 1953 and 1954.
The General Assembly reviewed those texts at its ninth session, in 1954, and decided to give the drafts the
widest possible publicity in order that Governments might study them thoroughly and that public opinion
might express itself freely. It recommended that its Third Committee start an article-by-article discussion of
the texts at its tenth session, in 1955. Although the article-by-article discussion began as scheduled, it was
not until 1966 that the preparation of the two covenants was completed.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights were adopted by the General Assembly by its resolution 2200 A (XXI) of 16 December
1966. The first Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted by the
same resolution, provided international machinery for dealing with communications from individuals claiming
to be victims of violations of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly
as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and
every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to
promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, 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.
Forty-eight States voted in favour of the Declaration, none against, with eight abstentions. In a statement
following the voting, the President of the General Assembly pointed out that adoption of the Declaration was
"a remarkable achievement, a step forward in the great evolutionary process. It was the first occasion on