Borgwardt on Human Rights at the UN 1945

Elizabeth Borgwardt,  Washington University in St. Louis, will present a public lecture, "'Present at the Creation?' Human Rights, NGOs, and the Trusteeship Debate at the 1945 UN San Francisco Conference," on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 4 p.m. in Room LJ119, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress.  The event is sponsored by the National History Center and the Eighth International Seminar on Decolonization:

This talk is the story of how "human rights" ideas and institutions found their way into the 1945 United Nations Charter, after having been left out of earlier drafts of that document. Accordingly, this research analyses the role of "modern" public opinion sampling, the carefully cultivated role of non-governmental organizations, as well as the role of unintended consequences for U.S. diplomacy around issues of race, decolonization, and trusteeship. This story also addresses constraints and contradictions within the Charter itself around protecting domestic jurisdiction and minimizing the role of "smaller" countries.

Information on two related public lectures this month is here.