The Role of South Asian Women in the Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

 Do you know that several women from South Asia played a crucial role in the making of the UDHR?

https://amzn.in/d/9SI81yi 

Courtesy https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day/women-who-shaped-the-universal-declaration

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 is the most significant document. It is about indivisible, inalienable, basic human rights of all people worldwide, particularly the marginalized. Several people in South Asia discredit human rights as a foreign, Eurocentric, or Western and male concept. However, in contradiction, this work argues that

Firstly, human rights outlined by the UDHR are universal collective aspirations shared globally. This work asserts that the UDHR is a legacy collectively owned by people worldwide.
Secondly, non-Western women, including those from South Asia, played a crucial role in shaping the framework of the UDHR.
Therefore, dismissing human rights as `foreign’ involves a denial of the significant role of the delegates from the Third World. Specifically, it is crucial to recognize `her-story’ and reclaim the role of South Asian women in making this significant document.

Hansa Jivraj Mehta, India

Begum Shaista Ikramullah, Pakistan

Lakshmi Menon, India

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, India

Begum Sharifa Hamid Ali, India

BEFORE the first meeting of the second session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Begum Hamid Ali of India (left) talks to Evdokia I. Uralova, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (centre), and her interpreter. Lake Success, NY, January 1948. UN Photo/Kari Berggra

https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day/women-who-shaped-the-universal-declaration