Glendon's Criticism Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

Since its creation by the United Nations in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been used as motivation and as a standard for judging the extent to which the governments of the world have upheld the rights, liberties, and fundamental needs of their citizens. While explaining the beginning of the UDHR, Glendon also gives the reader insight into other important events that were happening at that time, including the beginning of the Cold War and the creation of Israel. She explains the procedures by which in creating the UDHR, contributions were made by a large amount of cultures and beliefs.

Author’s argument:
Mrs. Roosevelt considered her involvement on the American U.N. delegation as the most important position of her life and her role in making the Universal Declaration her most important contribution toward a better world. Glendon describes some of the strategic and political judgments Mrs. Roosevelt made. For example, pushing for a non-binding Declaration rather than pushier, enforceable contracts that would have required the Senate to pass.
Roosevelt away from conservative criticism is only a small part of what Glendon is trying to say. What Glendon is really trying to point out is the larger problem of the Declaration itself. Mrs. Roosevelt may indeed have been essential to its creation, but there have been many criticisms about the UDHR. There have been two main criticisms of the Declaration, one from the Third World, underdeveloped countries, and the other from First World, developed countries. The criticism from the underdeveloped countries has most often claimed the UDHR to be a “Western product”, a form of intellectual and political imperialism enforced just after World War II by ambassadors at a UN made up of the United States, the USSR, and a few other major and minor foreign