Realizing the Pledge

In 1946, Canadian legal scholar, jurist, and human rights advocate John Humphrey was appointed the first Director of the United Nations Division of Human Rights. As part of his new role, Humphrey collaborated in drafting the document that would be adopted in 1948 as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Today, the UDHR is recognized as a milestone document in the history of human rights that has paved the way for over seventy human rights treaties globally. This commemoration marking the 75^th anniversary of the Declaration’s ratification will showcase Canada’s involvement in its creation, as well as its immediate impacts and ongoing legacy. Realizing the Pledge will do so through a thematic and micro-historical approach, focusing on key moments where the Declaration’s principles have guided Canadian actions and policies. In the decades that followed the Declaration’s adoption, Canada increasingly committed itself to the principles of the UDHR in both domestic and foreign policy and saw these principles as key to spreading democracy in a Cold War and post-Cold War world.

Beginning with the armistice marking the end of the Korean Warin 1953—a pivotal moment in Canada’s identity as a peacekeeping nation on the international stage—This project uses the articles of the UDHR to highlight moments when Canada’s involvement in international or domestic affairs embraced the aspirational spirit of the Declaration, including times when Canada asserted the principles within and beyond leadership of the United Nations.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

• How did the promotion and defense of universal human rights help shape Canada’s identity at home and abroad in the second half of the 20th century?
• What key defining moments in our shared histories have demonstrated Canada’s commitment to human rights?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

• The same rights should inherently belong to all humans and, while all humans are entitled to the same rights, there are circumstances that prevent some people and groups from accessing the equal application of these rights.
• Humans have a responsibility to protect not only their own but also each other’s rights in ways that support the development of a just and compassionate world. This sense of responsibility—or what Lester B. Pearson called a “devotion to peace” when accepting the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize—drove much of Canada’s foreign policy during the Cold War and beyond, including Pearson’s own work to create the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) and bring an end to the 1956 Suez Crisis.
• Canada’s involvement in restoring peace to the Korean Peninsula during the Korean War was a milestone moment in shaping Canada’s relationship to collective security and international peacekeeping.
• The UDHR has been a pivotal document influencing Canada’s approach to human rights both abroad and at home, and served as a precursor to Canada’s own Bill of Rights (1960) and Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982).
• The UDHR paved the way for additional legislation in defense of individual and community rights, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which have been influential in Canada’s understanding and defense of human rights. UNDRIP was instrumental in both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2008-2015) and the National Inquiry for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and2SLGBTQIA+ Peoples (2016-2019).