Please read the previous blog: Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Biden years before you read this blog. Click Here

Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of this land for 16 years. After her husband died and her role changed, her proudest moment was writing and passing the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in Paris in 1948. FDR set the American future by defeating the great depression of the 1930s and winning the war against the Axis forces of Germany and Japan. Eleanor then set out to create the future agenda of human rights in the world by passing the UDHR. Quite a couple.

But Eleanor’s legacy was neglected by Harry Truman. No First Lady has adopted the UDHR as a project since then. Less than 5% of the world even know about the UDHR and certainly less than 5% have read it.

How could this happen to a United Nations document signed by the massive majority? How did this document drop into the waste can of histories? Both democrats and republicans have walked away the document. Governments, all of them, avoid it.

But times do change. It is time for the UDHR to get another hearing and visibility. Given that the Biden government is seen as like Roosevelt’s, this might be the time to dig up the UDHR. At the least, it ought to move into the narrative of the think thanks and nonprofits that have benefited from its wisdom.

UDHR is the spine of the human rights movement. No question. Its very existence has given hope to prisoners everywhere. It threatens the torturer. It slows down the executioner. It gives the poor a chance against the mighty. UDHR supports the movement to democracy and freedom.

In 1988, my staff at Amnesty and I had the nerve to fly around the world after recruiting some of the best musicians of those days to join us, and we gave the UDHR a clear moment in that period of history. We played on five continents and opened the door for new human rights groups all over the world. It tripled the members of human rights groups worldwide. But again the UDHR lies neglected.

I believe that POTUS must see that the UDHR is printed in American passports. This way, no debate, Just do it. The time has come to let the dictators of the world know what the agenda of the future is, namely the UDHR