Letters to the Contrary: A Curated History of the UNESCO Human Rights Survey

374 Pages·2018·3.32 MB·English

by  Mark Goodale

LE T TERS T O TH E C ONTR ARY
Stanford Studies in Human Rights
L E T T E R S
T O T H E
C O N T R A R Y
A Curated History of the
UNESCO Human Rights Survey
Edited and Introduced by Mark Goodale
Stanford University Press • Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
©2018 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Goodale, Mark, editor.
Title: Letters to the contrary : a curated history of the UNESCO human rights
survey / edited and introduced by Mark Goodale.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2018. |
Series: Stanford studies in human rights | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017040633 (print) | LCCN 2017041867 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781503605350 (e-book) | ISBN 9780804799003 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781503605343 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Human rights—History—Sources. | United Nations. General
Assembly. Universal Declaration of Human Rights—History—Sources. |
Unesco—History—Sources.
Classification: LCC K3240 (ebook) | LCC K3240 .L477 2018 (print) |
DDC 341.4/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017040633
Cover design and photo: George Kirkpatrick
Text design: Bruce Lundquist
Typeset at Stanford University Press in 11/15 Adobe Garamond
What song then should [we] teach the youth of the world to
sing? It must be a song that looks war in the face and yet
continues to sing of better things. The heart must be strong
enough to conquer hate, and the mind clear enough to see the
Question from the point of view of the whole world. It will be
the hardest song to learn that the race has ever been called upon
to sing.
Ernest Henry Burgmann, aka the “Red Bishop” (1947)
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Contents
Foreword xiii
Samuel Moyn
A Technical Note on the Text xvii
PART I: READING HUMAN RIGHTS HISTOR Y WITH A PERIOD EYE
Introduction 3
History: UNESCO in the Paradigmatic Transition 13
Interpretations: From a “Hollow Sham” to a “Plurality of Cultural Values” 33
PART II: KEY DOCUMENTS
Memorandum and Questionnaire Circulated by UNESCO
on the Theoretical Bases of the Rights of Man 47
The Grounds of an International Declaration of Human Rights 54
Foreword and Introduction to Human Rights, Comments and Interpretations,
UNESCO 1949 66
Foreword 66
Jacques Havet
Introduction 67
Jacques Maritain
PART III: THE UNESCO HUMAN RIGHTS SUR VEY:
RESPONSES, REFUSALS, CORRESPONDENCE
LIBERALISM FROM THE ASHES 77
A Fragment of Thoughts Concerning the Nature and the Fulfilment
of Human Rights 77
Arnold J. Lien
The Philosophic Bases and Material Circumstances of the
Rights of Man 82
Richard P. McKeon
viii Contents
Relationship Between Different Categories of Human Rights 91
Quincy Wright
On the Draft Convention and “Universal Declaration
of the Rights of Man” 97
Levi Carneiro
Comments on the Basic Human Rights 101
Arthur H. Compton
A World Bill of Rights 103
Charles E. Merriam
Memorandum on the Rights of Man for the
Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations 107
Lewis Mumford
BEYOND EGOTISTIC MAN: COMMUNIST, SOCIALIST, AND
SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGES 109
The Rights of Man 109
E. H. Carr
On Human Rights 112
John Lewis
Towards a Universal Declaration of Human Rights 126
Harold J. Laski
The Rights of Man in Liberalism, Socialism and Communism 138
Serge I. Hessen
Comparison of Soviet and Western Democratic Principles,
with Special Reference to Human Rights 158
John Somerville
The Conception of the Rights of Man in the U.S.S.R.
Based on Official Documents 161
Boris Tchechko
Human Rights in the World Today 166
Luc Somerhausen
Declaration on the Rights of Man 168
Hyman Levy
Contents ix
Untitled 170
Ture Nerman
Contribution to Discussion on Declaration of Human Rights 171
R. Palme Dutt
Economic and Social Rights of Man 176
Maurice Dobb
RIGHTS IN A SACRED UNIVERSE 178
Philosophical Examination of Human Rights 178
Jacques Maritain
Some Reflections on the Rights of Man 183
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Grammatical Analysis of the Rights of Man 185
Marcel de Corte
Some Fundamental Ideas for the United Nations’
Declaration of the Rights of Man 188
Pedro Troncoso Sánchez
THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN DUTIES 191
A Letter Addressed to the Director-General of UNESCO 191
Mahatma Gandhi
Human Rights in the Chinese Tradition 192
Chung-Shu Lo
Reflections on Human Rights 196
Kurt Riezler
Reply to the Questionnaire on the Rights of Man 197
Inocenc Arnošt Bláha
Memorandum on the Rights of Man 199
Hubert Frère
Untitled 202
M. Nicolay