Roosevelt

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On September 28, 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady and delegate of the United Nations, delivered a speech entitled, “The Struggle for Human Rights.” This speech was delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France an audience of thousands of French citizens and delegates of the United Nations. “The Struggle for Human Rights,” dealt with the struggle toward universal acceptance of human rights from those states that were considered, by the United Nations and Roosevelt, non-compliant. Those non-complaint states consisted of, U.S.S.R., Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, and other member states, who had refused to accept the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thus denying every human being fundamental rights and freedoms. This declaration was written with the intent to unify all nations through common terms and principles surrounding the issues of human rights and freedoms. Roosevelt felt she must persuade those non-compliant countries to come to and understanding of the fundamental principles agrees upon by the United Nations through means of establishing unification with her democratic audience.
As former First Lady and a United Nations delegate, Eleanor Roosevelt was widely known for her “unparalleled humanitarian convictions” (1998, par 6) and for being “the driving force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (www.udhr.org, 2998, p.4). Her numerous speeches, newspaper columns, and books, over the span of more than ten years, brought human rights to the front burner of the political scene. Her passion was in joining the nations of the world through working with the United Nations. Uniting all nations was the reason for giving her speech “The Struggle for Human Rights.” The final purpose of Roosevelt’s speech was to convince France to remain strong in their principles an keep faith in their unyielding, peaceful efforts in restoring human rights and freedoms.
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