Synopses & Reviews
The second volume includes Humphrey's diaries from 1950 to 1951 and documents a time when the Division of Human Rights focused on providing support for various UN bodies in the development of covenants on human rights and related topics.This was a period of significant changes in the Human Rights Division. Eleanor Roosevelt was replaced as chair of the of the Human Rights Commission and Humphrey's friend and immediate superior, Assistant Secretary-General Henri Laugier, resigned, foreshadowing a significant change in the attitude of the UN senior administration towards the human rights program. The Secretariat also got its first intimation of the anti-communist witch hunt that was to come the following year.
Synopsis
John Humphrey, McGill University law professor and human rights advocate, became the first director of the United Nations Division of Human Rights in 1946 and held the position until 1966.