Drafting History

1. Drafting History - Introduction
2. Overview of Process and Key Documents
3. Accounts of Drafting Process
4. First Session of the Human Rights Commission
5. First Session of the Drafting Committee
6. Second Session of the Human Rights Commission
7. Second Session of the Drafting Committee
8. Third Session of the Human Rights Committee
9. Third Committee of the General Assembly
10. Plenary Session of the Third General Assembly Session
11. Reference

The Third Session of the Human Rights Commission began after the end of the May meetings of the drafting subsidiary and ran to the middle of June 1948. The discussions at this stage were very intense because the Commission signaled that it was in the mood to cut down what many delegations considered the overly cumbersome draft that had come out of the Second (Geneva) Session of the Commission. The greatest challenge came from a series of joint proposals from the United Kingdom and India that cut down almost all the articles to their bare minimum. It was only at this rather late moment that the Commission decided it could only deliver a declaration to be acted upon by the Third General Assembly. Both the covenant and various proposed measures for implementation were postponed.