Eleanor Roosevelt is recognized everywhere as a champion of human rights. Not only is she credited, as a result of her fervent leadership and perseverance in shepherding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through difficult and complex negotiations to the point of adoption by the UN General Assembly in 1948, but she devoted her life to the promotion of the rights of people everywhere, of every walk of life. She said more than once that she felt that the first human right – the great human right – was food. Consequently, there is perhaps no one better to serve as an inspiration for World Food Day. We have attempted to bring her into our presence through a tapestry of words taken from her speeches and writings. "The First Human Right - A Fireside Chat with Eleanor” was presented at the observance of World Food Day at the United Nations on October 18, 2007. A longer version of the script is available from the U.S. National Committee for World Food Day. You may contact the U.S. National Committee at 202-653-2404.
THE FIRST HUMAN RIGHT –
A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH ELEANOR
Note: Wording in italics is transitional text. Otherwise, the wording is extracted from texts written or delivered by ER. Some liberties have been taken with chronology for dramatic purposes. Footnotes can be found at the end of the script.
[Set: simple arrangement of table, chair and lectern. In the opening scene, Eleanor is seated behind the table as if chairing a meeting. There is a gavel and a small UN flag. As the light increases, ER begins to speak quite vigorously.]
[Facing toward the left]: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status….1
[Facing right:] I think in many countries we’re getting away from the use of the word class, and it would be a mistake to write it in a universal document. 2
[Turning to address the audience with more charm:] I have always been assigned to Committee III. That is the committee that deals with education, cultural, and humanitarian subjects. When I was first put on this Committee, I felt quite sure that one reason for the assignment was that our delegation was worried about having a woman as one of the delegates. They said, "Committee III--that's safe. She can't do anything there." Sometimes I think it has not been quite as safe as they thought it would be at the beginning.3
[Returning in her imagination to 1948:]…Just as I thought would happen at our evening session, we had to work until after 3 o’clock this morning. When I handed my coat to the young check girl at 8:30 last night, I said, “Perhaps you had better show me where you put it in case you will have left when I am ready to go home.” “Oh, no,” she replied. “When I know it is Committee III meeting I plan to stay all night. I sleep right here with the coats. It is the worst committee we have." 4
When someone commented on how I chaired my meetings, I said, "I drive hard and when I get home I will be tired! The men on the Commission will be also!" One member went so far as to suggest that his own human rights were violated by the length of the meetings!5
[Pausing to make a more serious point:] At one point, a delegate said to us: “I heard in America people say there was no such thing as freedom – it was simply freedom to starve.” We learned that lesson here during the depression and we know now that a democratic government has a responsibility to see that its people have freedom from fear. This should be one of the aims that we have before us in the coming year –to show that our conception of freedom and the rights of men includes the responsibility of their government to see that no man, woman or child starves and that, as far as we are able, we extend that guarantee to the nations of the world because of the greatness and generosity of our spirit.6
I am pleased to say that the Declaration included the following statement: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food…" 7
[Reflecting on the past:] Long ago in London I was told there was no such thing as freedom for the individual in the world. All freedom of the individual was conditioned by the rights of other individuals. That, of course, I granted. I said: “We approach the question from a different point of view; we here in the United Nations are trying to develop ideals which will be broader in outlook, which will consider first the rights of man, which will consider what makes man more free: not governments, but man." 8
[Standing and moving to the lectern:] In supporting the draft declaration in the General Assembly in 1948, I said, 9
The long and meticulous study and debate of which this Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the product means that it reflects the composite views of the many men and governments who have contributed to its formulation. Not every man nor every government can have what he wants in a document of this kind. There are of course particular provisions in the declaration before us with which we are not fully satisfied. I have no doubt this is true of other delegations, but taken as a whole the Delegation of the United States believes that this a good document—even a great document—and we propose to give it our full support….
In giving our approval to the declaration today it is of primary importance that we keep clearly in mind the basic character of the document. It is not a treaty; it is not an international agreement. It is not and does not purport to be a statement of basic principles of law or legal obligation. It is a declaration of basic principles of human rights and freedoms, to be stamped with the approval of the General Assembly by formal vote of its members, and to serve as a common standard of achievement for all peoples of all nations.
We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind, that is the approval by the General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recommended by the Third Committee. This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere.
At a time when there are so many issues on which we find it difficult to reach a common basis of agreement, it is a significant fact that 58 states have found such a large measure of agreement in the complex field of human rights. This must be taken as testimony of our common aspiration first voiced in the Charter of the United Nations to lift men everywhere to a higher standard of life and to a greater enjoyment of freedom. Man’s desire for peace lies behind this declaration….
As we here bring to fruition our labors on this Declaration of Human Rights, we must at the same time rededicate ourselves to the unfinished task which lies before us.
[Pulling the chair from behind the table to appear more casual, and sitting down:]
I long ago decided that the first human right for which people fight is the right to eat. 10
Freedom to eat is one of the most important freedoms. 11
Food is a real weapon both for war and for peace. 12
Hunger, lack of opportunity, poverty, unhappy people—they make war; they make revolutions. . . 13
The hunger of the world demands our sympathy and our production. 14
The first great human right to most of the people of the world is the right to eat. We have been blessed by the Almighty with a land that provides us with a surplus of food and yet we have not learned how to share this surplus with the people of the world. 15
If we eat, but our neighbours starve, we may have power for a little while, but we will not have assurance of peace and security for all. 16
Somehow we in this country who have so little experience of what it is like when there is no food available have got to try to understand this situation. For us, hunger comes to people who cannot afford to buy, but there is always the chance that some kind person will buy for one or that the government will look after one's needs. But when there just is no food, neither kindness nor the government can provide it. This is the kind of situation that calls for much imagination on our part in order to understand. 17
We cannot exist as a little island of well being in a world where two-thirds of the people go to bed hungry every night. 18
Freedom means nothing to a man with an empty stomach. He will accept a dictator if, with the dictator, comes the promise of food shelter. 19
As I journey through the world I think the human right that means most to the greatest number of people is the right to eat—and only after that is gratified can we offer cultural and spiritual leadership. 20
I will grant that there are two possibilities here, the old way and the new way. We have seen the results of the old way, however, in war and destruction and we may still see starvation and pestilence stalk the earth as a result of the old way. Might it be time to try the new way? 21
[Standing and taking a few steps toward the front of the stage:]
I personally have never formulated exactly what I would like to leave behind me. I am afraid I have been too busy living, accepting such opportunities as come my way and using them to the best of my ability, and the thought of what would come after has lain rather lightly in the back of my mind.
However, I suppose we all would like to feel that when we leave we have left the world a little better and brighter as a place to live in.
As I see it we can have no new deal until great groups of people, particularly the women, are willing to have a revolution in thought; are willing to look ahead....
When enough women feel that way there may grow up a generation of children with entirely different ambitions, and before we know it, a new deal and a new civilization may be upon us.
As I grow older I realize that the only pleasure I have in anything is to share it with someone else. That is true of memories, and it is true of all you do after you reach a certain age. The real joy in things, or in the doing of things, just for the sake of doing or possessing, is gone; but to me the joy in sharing something that you like with someone else is doubly enhanced….
With advancing years I feel I must give this question of what I want to leave behind me greater thought, for before long I shall be moving on to fields unknown, and perhaps it may make a difference if I actually know what I would like to bequeath to a new generation. Perhaps the best I can do is to pray that the youth of today will have the ability to live simply and to get joy out of living, the desire to give of themselves and to make themselves worthy of giving, and the strength to do without anything which does not serve the interests of the brotherhood of man. If I can bequeath these desires to my own children, it seems to me I will not have lived in vain. 22
[Pause to move to lighter vein:]
Somehow or other, most of the people who spoke to me seemed to feel that it was unbecoming in a woman to have a variety of interests. Perhaps that arose from the old inherent theory that woman's interests must lie only in her home. This is a kind of blindness which seems to make people feel that interest in the home stops within the four walls of the house in which you live. Few seem capable of realizing that the real reason that home is important is that it is so closely tied, by a million strings, to the rest of the world.
Whether we recognize it or not, no home is an isolated object. We may not recognize it, and we may try to narrow ourselves so that our interest only extends to our immediate home circle, but if we have any understanding at all of what goes on around us, we soon see how outside influences affect our own existence. Take, for example, the money we have to spend. What we are able to do in our home depends on the cost of the various things which we buy. All of us buy food, and food costs vary with conditions throughout the country and world….
Unless we have seen our home as part of this great world, it will come to us as somewhat of a shock that the world crowds in upon us so closely and so much…. 23
[Moving to the lectern for one final statement:]
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home -- so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. 24
[As the lights fade, a voice delivers the following statement:]
On the evening of 10 December 1948, the General Assembly endorsed the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights without amendment. There were no dissenting votes, but eight countries abstained. The Assembly, in a rare gesture of appreciation, gave Mrs. Roosevelt a standing ovation25 .
THE END
Assembled by Christopher M. Young, based on an concept suggested by Patricia Young, with quotes provided by Dr. Allida M. Black, from the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers project, George Washington University (© 2007 Christopher Young and Patricia Young, Washington, DC.). Fair use of this script for performances for educational purposes, with appropriate citation of source, is permitted without advance approval. The WFD Program would appreciate having information on such use.
1 Making Human Rights Come Alive, Phi Delta Kappan 31 (Sepr 1949). Speech to the Second National Conference on UNESCO, Cleveland, Ohio, 1 April 1949.(http://www.udhr.org/history/114.htm).
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 My Day by ER, 9 December 1948.
5 http://www.udhr.org/history/Biographies/bioer.htm
6 My Day by ER, 1 January 1948.
7 UDHR, article 25.
8 “The Struggle for Human Rights” ER speaking at the Sorbonne, Paris 28 September 1948 (http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/documents/speeches/doc026617.cfm).
9 ER’s speech was originally published by the Department of State in "Human Rights and Genocide: Selected Statements; United Nations Resolution Declaration and Conventions," 1949.
10 My Day, 21 August 1961
11 (India and Awakening East 1953 (quoted in Courage in a Dangerous World, 205)
12 My Day, 25 October 1943
13 ER’s Address to Women’s Joint Congressional Dinner, 14 March 1946.
14 ER’s keynote speech, Democratic State Convention, 3 September 1946.
15 My Day, May 30, 1960.
16 My Day, 8 June 1945.
17 My Day, May 25, 1962.
18 Speech. Democratic Fund-Raising Dinner. 8 December 1959
19 My Day” 24 July 1950.
20 My Day, February 7, 1962.
21 ER on Winston Churchill [Excerpt from The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers: Volume 1 1945-1948].
22 “What I Hope to Leave Behind,” Pictorial Review 34 (April 1933): 4, 45 (http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/documents/articles/leavebehind.cfm).
23 “In Defense of Curiosity,” The Saturday Evening Post 208 (24 Aug. 1935): 8B9, 64B66 (http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/documents/articles/indefenseofcuriosity.cfm).
24 “In Your Hands” (March 27, 1958) Tenth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ER at the presentation of "IN YOUR HANDS: A Guide for Community Action for the Tenth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Thursday, March 27, 1958 10:00 a.m. United Nations, New York.
25 http://www.udhr.org/history/Biographies/bioer.htm; http://www.universalrights.net/main/creation.htm