Leadership in Law: John P. Humphrey and the Development of the International Law of Human Rights

R. St. J. MacDonald

doi:10.1017/S0069005800004422

¹ Much of the information referred to herein is based on Humphrey, John P., Human Rights and the United Nations: A Great Adventure (Dobbs Ferry: Transnational Publishers, 1984, hereafter A Great Adventure)Google Scholar; Humphrey’s unpublished autobiographical manuscript (hereafter Original Manuscript); Simpson, Kieran (ed.), Canadian Who’s Who 486 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, vol. 26, 1991)Google Scholar; Hobbins, A.J., “René Cassin and the Daughter of Time: The First Draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” (1989) 2 Fontanus: From the Collections of McGill University 7 CrossRef Google Scholar; Hobbins, A.J., “Human Rights Inside the United Nations: The Humphrey Diaries, 1948–1959,” (1991) 4 Fontanus 143 CrossRef Google Scholar; Humphrey’s scholarly writings, many but not all of which are listed in Wiktor, Christian L., Canadian Bibliography of International Law 714 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984)Google Scholar; materials from McGill University libraries and archives; a series of taped interviews, and innumerable discussions with Humphrey that date back to our first meeting in the Third Committee of the General Assembly in 1965.

² Even later, reflecting on his years at the UN, Humphrey would say “It is true that I have a reputation for sometimes losing my cool, but I think I can say that, although I was often provoked, I always did keep my cool whenever I was acting in my official capacity” Speech, “Reminiscences of a One-Time International Official,” Conference on Human Rights and the Protection of Refugees under International Law, Nov. 29, 1987, at 4.

³ Original Manuscript, 45.

⁴ In his article on the history of the national law program at McGill, Professor R. A. Macdonald notes that, as late as 1949, “The Bar refused to recognize the McGill B.Comm. degree as a matriculation requirement, [and] maintained the additional requirement that students complete ’a regular course in philosophy’…”: Macdonald, R.A., “The National Law Programme at McGill: Origins, Establishment, Prospects,” (1990) 13 Dalhousie L.J. 211, at 268.Google Scholar

⁵ Original Manuscript, 51; Interview, May 5, 1989, at 6.

⁶ Original Manuscript, 52, 56.

⁷ Editorial, “Make Good Canadians,” Montreal Gazette, Spring 1925. This editorial refers to the book by John Lane entitled The New Elizabethans; “Confederation Club Formed at Central YMCA,” Montreal Gazette, Spring 1925, Humphrey’s clippings. Letter: John P. Humphrey (JPH) to his sister Ruth, Feb. 23, 1925, at 2, Mar. 10, 1925, at ι, Mar. 25, 1925, at 2.

⁸ “Thank You Percy Corbett,” undated three-page tribute by JPH to Corbett, typescript (hereafter Thank You Percy Corbett); Interview, May 5, 1989, at 17–18. On Corbett, see infra note 30.

⁹ Original Manuscript, 59. For a description of life in Montreal and at McGill at the time, see Forsey, Eugene, A Life on the Fringe 19–35, 49–72 (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Original Manuscript, 65–66.

¹¹ “Liberal Leader Discusses Plans,” Spring 1925; “Government was Sustained on Pulp Embargo Bill in Mock Parliament Session,” Spring 1925: Humphrey clippings.

¹² Original Manuscript, 64; Letter: JPH to R. St. J. Macdonald (RStJM), Nov. 13, 1975.

¹³ Original Manuscript, 70; Interview, May 5, 198g, at 8.

¹⁴ Interview, May 5, 1989, at 9, 10.

¹⁵ On the artist Jack Humphrey, see Loomer, L.S., Three Painters: Boardman Robinson, Jack Humphrey, Miller Brittain (Windsor, NS: L.S. Loomer, 1973).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Writing to his sister Ruth in 1932, from 2080 Lincoln Avenue, Humphrey observed that:

We’re all sweating from the first to the last, under the fear of losing our jobs. We’re afraid that we won’t have the opportunity to sweat! Great system! Of course, I am one of the fortunate ones. I live in comparative security; but there are those who don’t. When I think about these things — it’s not theorization. Unfortunately there are too many concrete examples all around us — I want to go out and tear someone to pieces. Here I am, my mouth shut up and my feet tied, because I’m caught up in the same whirlpool as the rest. Walking down-town at noon today I made a prayer. God, I said, make me independent of this and then, my God, watch my dust! Letter: May 2, 1932, at 7–8.

The world depression of the 1930s struck Canada more severely than any other country except the United States. By 1936, two-thirds of Canadians entering the work force couldn’t find jobs; more than a million people were on relief. See Berton, Pierre, The Great Depressimi 1929–1939 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990)Google Scholar; Smith, Cameron, Unfinished Journey: The Lewis Family 246, 290 (Toronto: Summerhill Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Casgrain, Thérèse F., A Woman in a Man’s World 115–16, 173–74 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972).Google Scholar

¹⁷ “I’m starting to see that there are some pretty fine things that a fellow can achieve if he goes at it in the right spirit. . . . It’s the good that a chap can do for humanity and his country that counts; not the good that he does for himself,”: JPH to his sister Ruth, Apr. 22, 1925, at 4. See too P. E. Corbett to Principal A. E. Morgan, Jan. 30, 1936, referring to Humphrey’s willingness “to sacrifice his very distinguished prospects at the Bar” if an opening occurred on the full-time faculty.

¹⁸ Interview, May 5, 1989, at 17.

¹⁹ Thank You Percy Corbett, supra note 8; at 2.

²⁰ Original Manuscript, 82; Thank You Percy Corbett, supra ; JPH to RStJM, Nov. 13, 1975.

²¹ Original Manuscript, 84.

²² JPH to Dean C. S. Le Mesurier, May 13, 1937, at 4.

²³ JPH to Dean C. S. Le Mesurier, Dec. 6, 1936, and May 13, 1937, at 2, describing his program of studies at Paris.

²⁴ McGill University Cakndar, 1935–36, at 48. The Board of Governors’ Minute Books of Mar. 3, 1936 state that, though appointed a lecturer in law for two years from Sep. 1, 1936, Humphrey was granted a leave of absence during the session 1936–1937 in order to pursue advanced studies in Europe. See also, McGill University Calendar 1937–38, at 22; McGill University Annual Report, 1945–46”, at 78; C. S. Le Mesurier to JPH, Apr. 2, 1937.

²⁵ McGill University Annual Report, 1945–46, at 52; McGill University Calendar, 1937–38, at 22; McGill University Annual Report, 1945–46, at 78; Board of Governors’ Minutes Books, June 7, 1944, at 1422, and June 12, 1946, at 1696.

²⁶ Interview, May 5,1989, at 28. On the history of the Faculty, see the splendid papers by Roderick A. Macdonald, supra note 4 and Brierley, J.E.C., “Quebec Legal Education since 1945: Cultural Paradoxes and Traditional Ambiguities,” (1986) 10 Dal-housie L. J. 5.Google Scholar

²⁷ Thank You Percy Corbett, supra note 8, at 3.

²⁸ Ibid ., 4.

²⁹ Scott, Frank R. (FRS) to RStJM, Nov. 14, 1979.Google Scholar Humphrey adds, significantly: “I don’t think he was getting any recognition in Ottawa,” Interview, Saturday, May 6, 1989, at 7.

³⁰ On P. E. Corbett (1892–1983) see Greene, B.M., ed., Who’s Who in Canada 446 (Toronto: International Press Ltd., 1934–35)Google Scholar; The Canadian Encyclopedia 516 (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 2d ed., vol. 1, 1988); Kathleen Fisher, a note in Quid Novi, McGill Law Faculty, vol. 4, no. 9, Nov. 2, 1983, at 1; and Frost, Stanley Brice, McGill University ßr the Advancement of Learning, vol. 2, 1895–1971 (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1980).Google Scholar Unfortunately, Frost’s account does not do Corbett justice. McGill University Faculty of Law Newsletter, Oct. 1984.

³¹ McGill University Cakndar, 1935–36, at 48; 1936–37, at 49; 1937–38, at 50, 393–94; 1938–39, at 51, 408; 1940–41, at 32, 609–10; 1941–42, at 32, 610–11; 1945–43, at 32, 610–11; 1943–44, at 32, 610–11; 1945–46, at 36, 610–11; 1945–46, at 35, 590–91; 1946–47, at 35, 770–71.

³² Interview, May 5, 1989, at 25; Interview, May 6, 1989, at 10; Interview, Dec. 27, 1991.

³³ Humphrey had ambitions for this, generally regarded, routine course which he wanted to make into a course on jurisprudence: JPH to Dean C. S. Le Mesurier Dec. 6, 1936, at 2-3; Apr. 20, 1937; see also supra note 31.

³⁴ R. A. Macdonald, supra note 4, at 271.

³⁵ Ibid., 273.

³⁶ Supra note 31. See too, Macdonald, R. St. J., “Maxwell Cohen at Eighty: International Lawyer, Educator, and Judge,” (1989) 27 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 3.CrossRef Google Scholar

³⁷ Humphrey, John P., “Canada and the Mexican Revolution,” The Canadian Forum, Dec. 1940, at 269.Google Scholar

³⁸ The Inter-American System: A Canadian View (Toronto: Macmillan, 1942); this book won the David Prize in Quebec. Interview, May 5, 1989, at 30–31. For reviews, see H. McD. Clokie, (1942) 8 Can. J. Econ. and Pol. Sc. 615; R. G. Trotter, 4g Queen’s Quarterly 252; H. G. Skilling, (1942) 36 Am. Pol. Sci. R. 964; Alfaro, Ricardo J., (1942) 36 Am. J. Int’l L. 735.10.2307/2192778CrossRef Google Scholar On Canadian-Latin American relations, see too Reid, Escott, Radical Mandarin: The Memoirs of Escott Reid 153–58 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989).Google Scholar

³⁹ The Inter-American System 1–6, 17–19; “Relationship of This Country to Pan-American Movement Described,” Sherbrooke Daily Record, Mar. 10, 1945.

⁴⁰ The Inter-American System 161–73. After twenty years at the United Nations, Humphrey changed his opinion:: membership was “a poor idea.” If Canada joined the OAS, “we would be spending most of our time taking chestnuts out of the fire for our American neighbors”: Interview, May 6, 1989, at 9; JPH to RStJM, Oct. 30,1989. Although this view was shared by such distinguished experts as Alfred Pick, the first Canadian Ambassador-Observer to the OAS from 1972 to 1975, the government of Canada, urged by the United States, committed itself to joining the OAS, which it did in 1990. Alfred Pick, Letter to the Editor, The Globe and Mail, Nov. 3, 198g, at 6, wrote: “I was the first Ambassador-Observer of Canada to the OAS from 1972 to 1975. Since leaving the post… I have been strongly opposed to Canadian membership. The last time this issue came to the fore was in November 1982, when the House of Commons Committee on External Affairs was thinking of recommending membership. I wrote a piece that got some attention and I was also interviewed by CTV. In the essence, I said that membership ’would, to put it mildly, complicate Canada’s already complex relations with the United States.’ I feel even more strongly today that the government of Canada, especially the current government, has neither the will nor the capacity to pursue a responsible independent policy in the OAS. We are bound to disappoint the Latin and Caribbean

⁴¹ “Relationship of this Country to Pan American Movement Described,” supra note 39.

⁴² Interview, May 5, 1989, 31.

⁴³ Humphrey, John P., “Whither Canada?”, The Canadian Forum, May 1940, at 44.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Humphrey, John P., “A Recipe for Canadian Unity,” The Canadian Forum, March 1943, at 345.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ “The Theory of the Separation of Functions,” (1946) 6 U. of T. L.J. 331.

⁴⁶ Ibid., 342–43

⁴⁷ Ibid., 355–56.

⁴⁸ The “rigid separation” between the administration and the legislature was, in Humphrey’s opinion, one of the reasons behind the failure of the U.S. to join the League of Nations, and therefore of the failure of the League itself, as President Wilson lacked the necessary support of Congress to achieve the League’s success: ibid., 356.

⁴⁹ Supra note 45, at 360.

⁵⁰ “On the Foundations of International Law,” (1945) 39 Am. J. Int’l L. 231.

⁵¹ Ibid., 239.

⁵² Ibid., 242.

⁵³ Ibid., 243, emphasis added. See too Humphrey, J.P., “Definition and Nature of Laws,” (1945) 8 Modern L. R. 194.10.1111/j.1468-2230.1945.tb02893.xCrossRef Google Scholar

⁵⁴ “The Parent of Anarchy,” (1946) 1 Int’l J. 11.

⁵⁵ Ibid., 15.

⁵⁶ Ibid.

⁵⁷ Ibid., 19.

⁵⁸ Ibid., 21.

⁵⁹ “The Main Functions of the United Nations in the Year 2000 A.D.,” (1971) 17 McGill L.J. 219, 225.

⁶⁰ Speech, St. Mary’s University Convocation Address, May 12, 1984, at 9; “Two Parents of Anarchy,” June 4, 1985, at 5–7; “The Dean Who Never Was,” (1989) 34 McGill L.J. 191, 198.

⁶¹ “Two Parents of Anarchy,” supra 5–7.

⁶² In 1932, he had considered running as the Canadian Labour Party’s candidate in the federal by-election in Maisonneuve; however, he realized that “I would be without a job the day my candidature was announced. There isn’t much glory in being a defeated Labour candidate when you’re without a job.” JPH to Ruth, May 28, 1932, at 1, 4. Later Humphrey is reported to have been named by the Board of Governors as one of its three representatives to the reorganized Montreal City Council: “McGill Names Three to City Council,” Montreal Daily Star, Nov. 8, 1940, at 3.

⁶³ “Canadian-American Friendship” (1938–1939) 8 U. of T. Quarterly 242; “The Twenty-Second Chair: Is It for Canada?,” (1941) 3 Inter-American Quarterly 5; “Homes Are Not Castles,” Canadian Magazine, Mar. 1939, at 9; “Whither Canada?,” Canadian Forum, May 1940; “Canada and the Mexican Revolution,” The Canadian Forum, Dec. 1940, at 269; “Pan America in the World Order,” The Canadian Forum, 1941, vol. XXI, at 199; “Argentina’s Diplomatic Victory,” The Canadian Forum, 1942, vol. XXI, at 362; “A Recipe for Canadian Unity,” The Canadian Forum, 1942, vol. XXII, at 345; “Dumbarton Oaks at San Francisco,” The Canadian Forum, 1945, vol. XXV, at 6.

⁶⁴ “Homes Are Not Castles,” The Canadian Magazine, vol. 91, no. 3, Mar. 1939, at 12; Original Manuscript, 103; Interview, May 5, 1989, at 32.

⁶⁵ Escott Reid, supra note 38, at 74.

⁶⁶ On the general background, see especially Horn, Michiel, The League fir Social Reconstruction (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980)CrossRef Google Scholar; Horn, Michiel, “Lost Causes: The League for Social Reconstruction and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in Quebec in the 1930s and 1940s,” Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 19, no. 2, 1984, at 132–56.CrossRef Google Scholar See also two important reviews of Djwa, Sandra, The Politics of the Imagination: A Life of F. R. Scott (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1987):Google Scholar McNaught, Kenneth, (1989) 12 McGill L.J. 422 Google Scholar; also, King Gordon, J., (1989) 12 Dal-housie L.J. 567 Google Scholar; and see also King Gordon, J., “Scholarly Study Cannot Contain Old Radical Underhill,” rev. of Douglas Francis, R., Frank Underhill: Intellectual Provocateur (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986)Google Scholar in The Citizen (Ottawa), Sept. 27, 1986, at C5.

⁶⁷ Original Manuscript, 105, 107; Interview, May 5, 1988, at 30.

⁶⁸ Original Manuscript, 107.

⁶⁹ Original Manuscript, 108; for extended discussion of the CIIA’s activities, see Escott Reid, supra note 38, chs. 6 and 7.

⁷⁰ Escott Reid, supra note 38, at 75.

⁷¹ “Professor J. Humphrey to Head Society,” Montreal Daily Star, Oct. 30, 1945.

⁷² United Nations News, Oct. 1945; “United Nations Slate Named,” Montreal Daily Star, Apr. 30, 1947. Humphrey was re-elected to this position in 1947, and was National President from 1968 to 1970.

⁷³ Louis Baudoin was appointed Professor of Civil Law in 1948, at the age of 78. Humphrey was also instrumental in bringing a distinguished French jurist, René Savatier, to give a series of lectures at McGill; Original Manuscript, 104–05; A Great Adventure, 2.

⁷⁴ A Great Adventure 1; Interview, May 6, 1989, at 18; “Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 195. Henri Laugier (1888–1973), after a distinguished pre-war academic career, went to the University of Algiers as Rector in the fall of 1943 and returned to France in 1944 after the liberation. He was UN Assistant Secretary-General from 1946 to 1951. When Laugier arrived in Washington early in the war, speaking no English, a position was found for him on the recommendation of the Rockefeller Institute as a professor of physiology at the Université de Montréal. He had been a titular professor in this field at the University of Paris. Humphrey stated elsewhere that he had met Laugier through Emile Vaillancourt in Montreal (Original Manuscript, 105) and that Laugier had held the chair in psychology at the Sorbonne, before being given a post at the Université de Montréal as Professor of Medicine, in spite of his open anti-clericalism and confrontational nature; Auger, Simone, “Un Canadien, peutil fair carrière a l’ONU en 1963?,” Le Magazine de la Presse, 9 mars 1963, at 6.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Original Manuscript, 101.

⁷⁶ See Varley’s, Christopher essay in The Contemporary Arts Society, Montreal, 1939–1948 96 (Edmonton: Edmonton Art Gallery, 1980).Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Original Manuscript, 103–3.

⁷⁸ Speech, Saturday Night Club, Oct. 17, 1935, at 1–2.

⁷⁹ Ibid., 13–14.

⁸⁰ Ibid., 13.

⁸¹ Original Manuscript, 112.

⁸² Interview, May 5, 1989.

⁸³ Transcript, CBC discussion, “Canadian Unity and Quebec” (Montreal: Canadian Printing and Lithographing, 1942), Nov. 29, 1942, Emile Vaillancourt, Hugh MacLen-nan, and John Humphrey, i6 pages, at 3 (hereafter “Transcript, CBC”). On this event, see too Cameron, Elspeth, Hugh MacLennan, A Writer’s Life, esp. at 165–67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981).Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Original Manuscript, 113; “The Pursuit of Excellence,” McGill News, Fall 1976, at 6; “Nationalism, Freedoms and Social Justice” (1975–76), 55 Dalhousie Review, 605, 607.

⁸⁵ “Transcript, CBC,” at 7–8. Émile Vaillancourt (1889–1968) was manager of the Montreal Tourist and Convention Bureau from 1936 to 1940. He was later Canada’s ambassador to Cuba (1945–48), Yugoslavia (1948–50), and Peru (1950–55). With respect to conscription, Humphrey would say, in his Original Manuscript, 113–14:

The country was still suffering from the divisive consequences of the imposition of conscription during the First World War. I felt so strongly about this that I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister. Quebec, I wrote, would support the war, but there must be no conscription – which was still identified as a symbol of English Canadian domination. I had a long reply to this letter from Arnold Heeney, my classmate, who was now the Prime Minister’s Secretary. Heeney, however, had missed the point of my letter which he apparently interpreted as isolationist in spirit. This annoyed me. I have never been an isolationist. In my letter to the Prime Minister, I had also offered my services in any useful capacity, but no advantage was taken of this offer. The only time the government ever asked me to do anything was when, immediately after the end of hostilities in Europe, but while Canadian troops were still there, I was asked to be part of a team of lecturers who would go into the camps to help prepare them for their return to civilian life. But at the very last minute, after all the arrangements had been made and I was booked to sail from New York, the cabinet cancelled the project. I was told later that General McNaughton objected to the presence of O’Leary on the team.

⁸⁶ Such a strategy would not have been possible under the League of Nations structure as Canada would have been obliged to enter into collective sanctions designed to halt aggressor nations: “Canada and War,” Transcript of “National Forum,” CBC, Jan. 12,1939 (speakers: Norman MacKenzie, University of Toronto, and Percy Corbett, McGill University), 8 pages. A great deal of the effort of Canadian diplomacy in the 1930s and 1940s lay simply in attempting to get the British and Americans to take Canada seriously as an independent nation: see John English, , Shadow of Heaven: The Life of Lester Pearson Volume One: 1899–1948 (Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1989).Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Interview, May 6, 198g, at 2–3; Escott Reid, supra note 38, at 91. Michiel Horn has reminded us that “Canadians expected their intellectuals to be ’useful’ or ’constructive’ in an auxiliary capacity, or else decorative and possibly entertaining. They did not expect them to be critical or radical. . . .When Frank Underhill came close to being dismissed… it was less his socialism than his ’anti-Britishism’ that was at issue”: Horn, supra note 66 at 205, 208.

⁸⁸ Escott Reid, supra note 38, at 124; see also 117–25.

⁸⁹ Interview, May 5, 1989, at 30–31; The Inter-American System: A Canadian View (Toronto: Macmillan, 1942); Escott Reid, supra note 38, at 153–58. See too Oliver, Michael, “F.R. Scott: Quebecer,” in Djwa, Sandra and Macdonald, R.St.J. (eds.), On F. R. Scott 165-JJ (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Humphrey, , “Dumbarton Oaks at San Francisco,” The Canadian Forum 1945, vol. 25, no. 291, at 6–10 Google Scholar; Interview, May 5,1989, at 22; Interview, May 6,1989, at 8–9.

⁹¹ Interview, May 6, 1989, at 13; McNaught, supra note 66, at 424.

⁹² Escott Reid, supra note 38, at 115, 146–48. Reid is not quite accurate on Forsey: see Horn, supra note 66, at 184–85. For the full story on Underhill, see Francis, supra note 66.

⁹³ Interview, May 6, 1989, at 112–14. The McGill Archives Index of Faculty Appointments lists Humphrey as “Acting Dean of the Faculty of Law” in 1946: see Index Card on J. P. Humphrey, McGill Archives.

⁹⁴ “We were all part of the left thirties in Montreal. Indeed if we had had a McCarthy in Canada we would all have been in trouble later on”: Interview, May 5, 1989, at 30; Interview, May 6,1989, at 12–14. In 1932 Humphrey had written to his sister Ruth that “I’m like Leon Blum, to me socialism is a religion”: JPH to Ruth, May 28, 1932, at 4–5. It should be remembered that Humphrey at this time had already become an outspoken critic of the politics of English language dominance in Quebec (see Humphrey’s Canadian Forum articles “Whither Canada?” and “A Recipe for Canadian Unity,” supra notes 43 and 44, respectively). It is possible that Humphrey’s close connections with Quebec’s francophone elite and his strong views on the subject of English-French relations did not sit comfortably with the Governors of McGill University at the time. See also R. A. Macdonald to RStJM, Nov. 22, 1991, at 2.

⁹⁵ JPH to RStJM, with attachment, Sept. 20, 1983; Interview, Saturday, May 6, 1989, at 13; Stanley Frost, The Man in the Ivory Tower (Montreal: McGill- Queen’s University Press, 1991), makes no mention of the incident. See too review of Frost by Michiel Horn in Historical Studies in Education (forthcoming, 1992).

⁹⁶ A Great Adventure 2; Cassin, René, “Looking Back on the Universal Declaration of 1948,” (1968) Rev. of Contemporary Law (No. 1) 13, at 13–14.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 196; Interview, May 6, 1989, at 13–14.

⁹⁸ A Great Adventure 2–3, 7; Speech, Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Address, Collegiate Council for the United Nations, Sarah Lawrence College, June 17, 1966, 10 pages, at 2; “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 196.

⁹⁹ Ramcharan, B.G., review of A Great Adventure in 23 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 471 (1985).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, 194–195.

¹⁰¹ Humphrey describes the members of his staff as follows: ’ ’Intellectually, the members of the Division of Human Rights could have held their own in most groups of civil servants or academics. They were also hard-working, loyal and friendly; and they believed in the significance of what they were doing. The fact that they were of many races, nationalities, and creeds, added to their richness as a team; and such was their devotion to the United Nations that in professional matters they acted objectively without regard to the special interests of the countries from which they happened to come. When we disagreed, it was usually because of some personal or other reason such as would have divided officials in a national administration”: A Great Adventure 7, 33–34, 96–97.

¹⁰² A Great Adventure 7; Interview, May 6, 1989, at 17.

¹⁰³ MacSween, Joseph “Hampton Man’s Position in the U.N. ‘Interesting but Frustrating’,” The Telegraph Journal, John, Saint, New Brunswick, Feb. 14, 1959.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ See Hobbins, A.J., “Human Rights Inside the United Nations: The Humphrey Diaries, 1948–1959,” (1991) 4 Fontanus 143, at 156–63.AMBIGUOUS 2062058,1649002,1899337Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ “The Revolution in the International Law of Human Rights,” (1975) 4 Human Rights 205, 209. For an illustration of the attitudes within the American Bar Association, see “Declaration on Human Rights: Canadian, American Bars Ask Delay of Action,” (1948) 34 A.B.A.J. 881; Moskowitz, Moses, “Is the U.N.’s Bill of Human Rights Dangerous? A Reply to President Holman,” (1949) 35 A.B.A.J. 283.Google Scholar See also Humphrey’s own diary entry of Sept. 21, 1948, where he discusses the speech of the President of the American Bar Association, Frank E. Holman: “He says that the U.N. human rights programme is an attempt to establish State socialism ’if not communism’… he is reported as having mentioned me personally as having admitted the ’revolutionary’ character of the programme. Of course it will be revolutionary if we succeed, but there is nothing particularly revolutionary in what we have done up until now”: Hobbins, supra, 146. According to Hobbins’ research into Humphrey’s diaries, Hammarskjold’s attitude towards human rights had begun to alter with time. In 1957 Humphrey wrote: “It would certainly be wrong to say that he has become an enthusiastic supporter of the human rights programme, but there is very real evidence of an evolution in the right direction”: Hobbins, supra, 165.

¹⁰⁶ A Great Adventure 3, 270, 316; Ramcharan review, supra note 99, at 472. Humphrey’s interpretation of the alleged lack of interest of the secretaries-general in the human rights area is now coming to be widely accepted. See, for example, observations of Christine Cerna, M. in (1982) 86 Am. J. Int’l L. 191–93.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ A Great Adventure 134; Clark, Roger S., review of A Great Adventure, (1984) 79 Am.J.Int’l.L. 195–96.Google Scholar Accounts of the period range from Alistair Cooke’s pioneer Generation on Trial to Whittaker Chamber’s suspect Witness, both of which convey the confusion and equivocation that were part ofthat time, to Hazzard’s, Shirley Countenance of Truth (New York: Viking, 1990),Google Scholar a ’ ’Counter Blast” on the secretaries-general. On Trygve Lie, see Barros, James, Trygve Lie and the Cold War (Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Lie, Trygve, In the Cause of Peace (New York: Macmillan, 1954).Google Scholar See too Heale, M.J., American Anticommunism: Combatting the Enemy Within 1830–1970, esp. at 145–91 (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990)CrossRef Google Scholar; Diggins, John Patrick, The Proud Decades (New York: Norton, 1988)Google Scholar; and Hellman, Lillian, Scoundrel Time (New York: Macmillan, 1976).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 194–95; as to Humphrey’s relations with Hammarskjold, see A Great Adventure 3–4, 79, 205.

¹⁰⁹ A Great Adventure 270; Clark, supra note 107, at 196. “Hammarskjold’s attitude may have been due to American pressure, but the fact is that he never understood even the political importance of the program. I could never understand how it was he couldn’t understand that human rights had political significance. I do not put Hammarskjold on the top of my list of Secretaries-General at all”: Interview, July 13, 1990, at 14–15, May 6, 1989, at 16, 20, 21.

¹¹⁰ A Great Adventure 316; Interview, May 6, 1989, at 15–16.

¹¹¹ A Great Adventure 47.

¹¹² “The International Law of Human Rights in the Middle Twentieth Century” in Bos, Maarten (ed.), The Present State of International Law and Other Essays 75 (Deventer: Kluwer, 1973).Google Scholar

¹¹³ Ibid., 76–78. In his preface to Lillich, Richard (ed.), Humanitaruin Intervention and the United Nations (Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 1973),Google Scholar Humphrey suggested that what is needed is a legal mechanism which would give the United Nations the ability to use force on humanitarian grounds in situations where there is no threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression.

¹¹⁴ Ibid., 82.

¹¹⁵ Speech on the Tenth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Winnipeg, Dec. 10, 1958, at 1, 5–6. For his statement on historical developments, see “The Universal Declaration of Rights,” (1949) 4 Int’l J., 353–55; “Human Rights and Authority,” (1970) 20 U.of T.L.J. 412, 413; see generally, Humphrey, , “The United Nations’ Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” in Luard, E., The International Protection of Human Rights 39 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1967)Google Scholar; “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 198–99; “The United Nations Human Rights Programme,” in Council for Christian Social Action of the United Church of Christ, Social Action, (1963) Vol. XXX, at 6 (hereafter, Social Action).

¹¹⁶ “Human Rights, The United Nations and 1968,” (1968) 9 J. of Int’l Commission of Jurists 1, 3.

¹¹⁷ Speech, Winnipeg, Dec. 10, 1958, at 3–4; “Human Rights, the United Nations and 1968” (1968), 9 J. of Int. Comm. of Jurists 1, at 2; “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” (1949) 4 Int. J. 354; “The United Nations and Human Rights,” (1963) Behind the Headlines, Canadian Institute of International Affairs, vol. XXIII, no. 1, at 26 (hereafter Behind the Headlines); Social Action, supra note 115, at 6.

¹¹⁸ “The Main Functions of the United Nations in the Year 2000 A.D.,” at 220; A Great Adventure 255; Social Action, supra, 6.

¹¹⁹ Speech, “Two Parents of Anarchy,” supra note 60, at 9-10; Speech “Three Parents of Anarchy,” to Nova Scotia Commission on Human Rights, Apr. 18, 1988, at 7 et seq. Philip Alston, review of A Great Adventure, (1984) 6 Human Rights Quarterly 244 (hereafter, Alston).

¹²⁰ These references may be found in the Preamble, and Articles 1, 13, 55, 62, para. 2, 68, and 76. Humphrey examined them in detail in “The United Nations’ Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” supra note 115, at 41–46; and “Human Rights and Authority,” supra note 115, at 414–15.

¹²¹ ”The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” (1949) 4 Int’l. J. 354; “The United Nations and the Protection of Human Rights,” Report of the Iowa Commonwealth Conference on Human Rights, March 28–29, 1968, at 29, 30 (Division of Extension and University Services: University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1968).

¹²² “Human Rights and Authority,” supra note 115, at 413.

¹²³ Eleanor Roosevelt had been a member of the United States’ delegation at the First Session of the General Assembly in London. The U.S. Delegation, which included then Secretary of State, James F. Byrnes, the former Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, and Senators Tom Connally and Arthur H. Vandenberg, had relegated Roosevelt to the Third Committee of the General Assembly, which was concerned with social, humanitarian, and cultural questions and thus was assumed to be of little importance. It was to become, however, “one of the most important and productive in the United Nations”; speech, Eleanor Roosevelt, at 2; see Lash, Joseph P., Eleanor Roosevelt: A Friend’s Memoir 296–302 (New York: Doubleday, 1964).Google Scholar

¹²⁴ Humphrey, J.P., “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Its History, Impact, and Juridical Character,” in Ramcharan, B.G. (ed.), Human Rights: Thirty Years After the Universal Declaration 21–22 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979)Google Scholar; Behind the Headlines, at 3.

¹²⁵ “The United Nations Commission on Human Rights and Its Parent Body,” in René Cassin: Amicorum Discipulorumque Liber III (Paris: Institut International des Droits de l’Homme, vol. 1, 1969).

¹²⁶ Ramcharan, op. cit. supra note 124, at 474.

¹²⁷ “The United Nations Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities,” (1968) 6a Am. J. Int’l L. 869, 883.

¹²⁸ Supra note 125, at 108–09; Ramcharan, op. cil. supra note 124, at 474; Alston, supra note 119, at 224.

¹²⁹ A Great Adventure 21, 47.

¹³⁰ Ibid., 20; “The United Nations Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities,” supra note 127, at 870, 872.

¹³¹ “Human Rights, The United Nations and 1968,” supra note 112, at 6–7.

¹³² In 1968 Humphrey stated that the international norms for the protection of minorities were scarce, apart from the “relatively weak” Art. 27 of the International Covenant; for his detailed explanation, see “The United Nations Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities,” supra note 127, at 873–75.

¹³³ Ibid, 888.

¹³⁴ Male, John, “Human Rights Was ‘A Great Adventure’,” review of Humphrey’s A Great Adventure (unidentified New Zealand journal).Google Scholar

¹³⁵ Male, supra, at 3; see speech, Conference on the Media, at 8.

¹³⁶ Raman, K.V., in Macdonald, R.St.J. and Johnston, Douglas M. (eds.), The Structure and Process of International Law 1027 (The Hague: Sithoff & Noordhoff, 1986).Google Scholar

¹³⁷ Alston, supra note 119, at 231; Jenks felt that these rights should not be dealt with in the international covenants as their implementation was better handled by specialized agencies such as the ILO, UNESCO and WHO: Alston, ibid.; A Great Adventure 141–44; Interview, May 6, at 4. See too “Review of the Work of the Sub-Commission,” working paper by Mr. Theo Van Boven and Mr. Asbjorn Eido: E/CN.4/Sub.2/1989/47, July 31, 1989.

¹³⁸ Humphrey says that the Secretariat “prophetically added” that this option, the multilateral convention binding only on those states which ratified it, “might involve delays”: A Great Adventure 22.

¹³⁹ “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 196. For valuable discussion of the background see Das, Kamleshwar, “Some Observations Relating to the International Bill of Human Rights,” (1984) 19 Indian Y.B. Int’l Aff. 1–53 Google Scholar; Robinson, Nehemiah, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Its Origin, Significance, Applications and Interpretation. Institute of Jewish Affairs (New York: World Jewish Congress, 1958)Google Scholar; Schwelb, Egon, Human Rights and the International Community: The Roots and Growth of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948–1963 (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1964)Google Scholar; McDougal, M., Lasswell, H. and Chen, L., Human Rights and World Public Order (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980)Google Scholar; and for recent stimulating analysis, see A. J. Hobbins, supra note 1.

¹⁴⁰ Malik, Charles, Introduction to Frederick Nolde, Free and Equal 11–12 (Geneva, 1968).Google Scholar

¹⁴¹ Humphrey, J.P., No Distant Millenium: The International Law of Human Rights 147 (Paris: UNESCO, 1989).Google Scholar

¹⁴² A Great Adventure 29. In Humphrey’s words, Malik was “a Christian Lebanese who seemed to believe that St. Thomas Aquinas had had the answers to all questions,” while “Chang had studied under John Dewey and called himself a pluralist”: “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 197. Later Malik was the President of the Economic and Social Council at the time the draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was forwarded to the General Assembly; he was also the Chairman of the Third Committee presiding over 80 meetings on the consideration of the Draft Declaration; speech, “Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom in Europe,” Venice, Feb. 4, 1988, at 1–2; “Universal Declaration,” supra note 124, at 22–23; Hobbins, A.J., “René Cassin and the Daughter of Time: The First Draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” (1989) 2 Fontanus 4, 7–27.CrossRef Google Scholar

¹⁴³ Cassin, René, “Looking Back on the Universal Declaration of 1948,” (1968) 1 Rev. of Contemporary L. 13, at 15.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁴ “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 197; A Great Adventure 29–30; “Universal Declaration,” supra note 124, at 23; A. J. Hobbins, supra note 1, at 4.

¹⁴⁵ A Great Adventure 30; “Universal Declaration,” supra, 23; Cahill, Jack, “How a Canadian Drafted United Nations Rights Charter,” Toronto Star, December 10, 1988.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁶ Émile Giraud was a distinguished internatonal lawyer in his own right, having become a professor of law at Rennes at the age of 30, and was first a member and later head of the legal section of the League of Nations from 1927 to 1946. He joined the Human Rights Division in Jan. 1947 and worked under Humphrey until he became deputy director of the United Nations Division for the Development and Codification of International Law: Alston, supra note 119, at 225–56, n. 4.

¹⁴⁷ A Great Adventure 31–32; “The Universal Declaration,” supra note 124, at 23–24, n. 8; Alston, supra, 226.

¹⁴⁸ In S. Prakash Sinha’s review of A Great Adventure, in (1984) 12 Int’l. J. of Legal Information 158, he expressed regret that a serious consideration of the texts of non-Western cultures was, in his opinion, neglected in the drafting process; however, see infra note 181.

¹⁴⁹ Wilson, Hugh, “Human Rights Declaration: Credit Where Credit Is Due,” McGill News, Spring 1989, at 5 Google Scholar; A.J. Hobbins, supra note 1, at 4; “Human Rights and Authority,” 415.

¹⁵⁰ A Great Adventure 32–33; “Human Rights and Authority,” 415. Humphrey notes that, given the historical events that formed the backdrop against which the desire for a universal declaration of human rights was expressed, it is not surprising that the Declaration outlined the rights of individuals while the corresponding duties “are only mentioned once, and authority not at all.”

¹⁵¹ “The Universal Declaration,” supra note 124, at 24; A Great Adventure 42; A. J. Hobbins, supra note 1, at 5. According to Israel, Cassin was already a member of an eighteen-person committee, and was named rapporteur of that committee. It was in this capacity that he undertook the work on the declaration.

¹⁵² Humphrey, J.P., No Distant Millenium: The International Law of Human Rights 149 (Paris: UNESCO, 1989)Google Scholar (hereafter No Distant Millenium).

¹⁵³ Alston, supra note 119, at 225, 228.

¹⁵⁴ No Distant Millenium, supra note 152, at 149.

¹⁵⁵ Ibid., 149.

¹⁵⁶ Alston, supra note 119, at 226–228. In “René Cassin and the Daughter of Time,” A. J. Hobbins examined the claims made by or on behalf of René Cassin; he wrote: “[I]t is not clear why he claimed to have authored the first draft, although several possibilities suggest themselves”: supra note 1, at 23. According to Hobbins, Cassin’s assertions as to authorship were made primarily in the 1960s “when he was over eighty. His memory was evidently faulty on details,” ibid., 26, n. 40. To support this theory, Hobbins refers to an article written by Cassin in 1951, soon after the drafting of the Universal Declaration. According to Hobbins, that article was “generally consistent with the events and contrary to his later recollections,” ibid., 23. He also points out that the later assertions by Cassin as to authorship were probably pressed as much by his friends and colleagues as by Cassin himself: ibid., 26, n. 40.

¹⁵⁷ Op. Cit. supra note 152, at 149.

¹⁵⁸ René Cassin, in (1968) Rev. Contemporary L. 13, at 17–18.

¹⁵⁹ Gérard Israel, René Cassin (1887–1976): La Guerre hors la loi, avec de Gaulle, les droits de l’homme 187 (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1990).

¹⁶⁰ René Cassin, supra note 158, at 18.

¹⁶¹ “The Universal Declaration,” supra note 124, at 23, n. 7. “You will remember Cassin’s reference to work of the Secretariat that could not be used in oral debate. He could have been referring to the 400-page document of extracts from national constitutions but did not say so. What he actually used as the basis for his own draft was the text I had prepared under my mandate from the Committee of Three. This was of course overtaken by the mandate from ECOSOC which referred to a Secretariat Outline, but which I chose to ignore in favour of my draft”: JPH to RStJM, Jan. 5, 1992, at 2.

¹⁶² Cassin, supra note 158, at 15.

¹⁶³ A Great Adventure 43–44.

¹⁶⁴ “The Universal Declaration,” supra note 124, at 25.

¹⁶⁵ Hobbins, supra note 1, at 8; see generally, ibid., 8–30.

¹⁶⁶ Supra note 127, at 873 et seq.

¹⁶⁷ Byelorussia, the Soviet Union, the Ukraine, and Yugoslavia abstained.

¹⁶⁸ Behind the Headlines, supra note 117, at 4, says there were 86 meetings; “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” (1949) 27 Can. Bar. Rev. 203 puts the number at 84; A Great Adventure 63–70; “The Universal Declaration,” supra note 124, at 26. The text of the Universal Declaration was voted on as a whole and article-by-article with most articles being adopted unanimously.

¹⁶⁹ Humphrey noted, “ It is no exaggeration therefore, to say that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a synthesis of the contribution of many thousands of minds”: “The U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Rights,” in Luard, Evan, The International Protection of Human Rights 49 Google Scholar; “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 97.

¹⁷⁰ “The United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration,” at 48–49; “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” (1949) 27 Can. Bar Rev. 203–4.

¹⁷¹ The countries abstaining were Byelorussia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Ukraine, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia, with Saudi Arabia and South Africa not voting: A Great Adventure 71.

¹⁷² A Great Adventure 78–79; “The Revolution in the International Law of Human Rights,” at 205–6. See also “Declaration on Human Rights: Canadian, American Bars Ask Delay of Action,” (1948) 34 A.B.A.J. 881.

¹⁷³ In his diary kept at the time, Humphrey described Canada’s statement to the Plenary as “one of the worst contributions” and as a “niggardly acceptance of the Declaration.” Hobbins suggests that this rather harsh criticism “show[ed] the strain Humphrey had been under and reflected] the shock of Canada’s earlier abstention”: see Hobbins, “Human Rights Inside the United Nations,” supra note 1, at 156, quoting a diary entry of Dec. 11, 1948. For constitutional reasons, the federal government was wary of becoming involved with questions of human rights at the international level at that point in time: see Holmes, John W., The Shaping of Peace: Canada and the Search for World Order, J043-7057, at 242 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, vol. 1, 1979).CrossRef Google Scholar

¹⁷⁴ A Great Adventure 72; Behind the Headlines, supra note 117, at 4.

¹⁷⁵ The states abstaining included Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, the Ukraine, South Africa, the USSR, and Yugoslavia; Behind the Headlines,supra, 4.

¹⁷⁶ “The Universal Declaration,” supra note 124, at 27; “The International Bill of Rights:: Scope and Implementation,” (1976) 17 William & Mary L. Rev. 527, at 528–29.

¹⁷⁷ “Universal Declaration,” (1949) 4 Int’l J. 356.

¹⁷⁸ Speech, “Education: The Ultimate Sanction of Human Rights,” California State University, Long Beach, California, Nov. 8, 1985, at 10–11.

¹⁷⁹ Op. cit. supra note 152, at 93.

¹⁸⁰ Ibid., 148, emphasis added.

¹⁸¹ Verdoodt, Albert, “Influence des structures ethniques et linguistiques des pays membres des Nations Unies sur la rédaction de la Déclaration Universelle des Droits de l’Homme,” in René Cassin: Amicorum Discipulorumque Liber I: Problèmes de protection internationale des droits de l’homme 404–16 (Paris: Éditions A. Pedone, 1969).Google Scholar See too Tomuschat, Christian, “Human Rights in a World-Wide Framework: Some Current Issues”; Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Rechtund Völkerrecht Vol. 45 (1985), p. 547 et seq. Google Scholar Mbaya, Étienne Richard, “L’université des droits de l’homme face à la diversité des cultures,” Proceedings of the First Annual Conference of the African Society of International and Comparative Law, Lusaka, Jan. 30-Feb. 3) 1989.Google Scholar Published by the African Society of Int’l & Comp. Law, London, 1989, at 16–43.

O’Manique, John, “Universal and Inalienable Rights: A Search for Foundations” (1990) 12 Human Rights Quarterly 465.10.2307/762495CrossRef Google Scholar

¹⁸² For Humphrey’s views, see: “The United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” at 53–55; “The Universal Declaration,” supra note 124, at 28–37; Behind the Headlines, supra note 117, at 6–8.

¹⁸³ “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 197.

¹⁸⁴ Behind the Headlines, supra note :17, at 6. It is reported that Humphrey, “forbade any of his staff to describe the Universal Declaration as without legal authority”: King Gordon to RStJM, Sept. 21, 1986, at 1.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁵ Report of the Iowa Commonwealth Conference, at 31; Social Action, supra note 115, at 7–8.

¹⁸⁶ “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” (1949) 4 Int’l J. 358. It will be recalled that the Universal Declaration has been used to interpret the seven references to human rights in the United Nations Charter which were left largely undefined: A Great Adventure, 58.

¹⁸⁷ Humphrey notes that all of the member states abstaining in 1948 at the adoption of the Universal Declaration except for South Africa, adopted the first of these two declarations: “Human Rights, the United Nations and 1968,” at 10.

¹⁸⁸ UN Doc. E/Cn.4/L.6io, cited in Behind the Headlines, supra note 117, at 6–7.

¹⁸⁹ For opposing arguments, see Sinha, supra note 148, at 159.

¹⁹⁰ C.C.I.L. proceedings, at 8–12; Report of the Iowa Conference, at 32; “Human Rights and Authority,” at 414; Report of the Rapporteur, Report of the International Committee on Human Rights, in Report of the Fifty-Third Conference Held at Buenos Aires, August 25 to August 31, 1968, at 437 (International Law Association, 1969); “Revolution in the International Law of Human Rights,” 207; “The Dean Who Never Was,” supra note 60, at 197–98.

¹⁹¹ “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” (1949) 27 Can. Bar Rev. 204; “The Revolution in the International Law of Human Rights,” 206–7.

¹⁹² Mrs. Roosevelt’s tenure as Chair of the Commission on Human Rights ended in 1950. Charles Malik replaced her as Chair for the 1951 session. When the covenants were sent to the Third Committee in 1954, the Commission was chaired by Mr. Aznai of Egypt.

¹⁹³ “Nationalism, Freedom and Social Justice,” (1975–76) 55 Dalhousie Review 605, 610.

¹⁹⁴ Humphrey suggests this argument is most often put forward by governments of totalitarian or one-party states and is made more dangerous through the combination of nationalism and ’ ’totalitarian or quasi-totalitarian socialism’ ’ to which such governments adhere, suggesting that “[t]his unholy alliance between nationalism and totalitarianism is a continuing threat not only to world peace but also to the preservation of those human rights and fundamental freedoms without which there can be no human dignity”: “Nationalism, Freedom and Social Justice,” 611.

¹⁹⁵ Macdonald, R.St.J. and Humphrey, J.R. (eds.), The Practice of Freedom 18 (Toronto: Butterworths, 1979) (hereafter The Practice of Freedom).Google Scholar

¹⁹⁶ “The Individual in the Eighties,” 12; The Practice of Freedom, supra, xix.

¹⁹⁷ Speech, “Vème Conférence Internationale de Droit Constitutionnel,” Québec, Oct. ι, 1987, at 2–3.

¹⁹⁸ Behind the Headlines, supra note 117, at 10.

¹⁹⁹ In 1963 the Third Committee met only for three months a year and devoted only a portion of its time to the drafting of the covenants; Social Action, supra note 115, at 9.

²⁰⁰ “Human Rights: New Directions in the United Nations Program,” (1958) 4 N.Y.L. Forum 391.

²⁰¹ “The United Nations and Human Rights,” (1965) Howard L.J. 373; International Law Association, Report of the Fifty-Third Conference Held at Buenos Aires, August 25 to August 31, 1968, at 438 (London, 1969) (hereafter ILA Report, 1968).

²⁰² ILA Report, 1968, supra, 438–39.

²⁰³ A right to petition had been included by Humphrey in Art. 28 of the Secretariat’s draft: “The Right of Petition in the United Nations,” (1971) 4 Human Rights L.J. 463, 464.

²⁰⁴ Report on the Iowa Conference, 34; ILA Report, 1968, supra note 201, at 442–45; “The United Nations and Human Rights,” 374.

²⁰⁵ “The United Nations and Human Rights,” 374.

²⁰⁶ “The Right of Petition in the United Nations,” supra note 203.

²⁰⁷ Ibid., 465, 470.

²⁰⁸ A Great Adventure 38; Ramcharan, op. cit. supra note 124, at 474.

²⁰⁹ “Nationalism, Freedom and Social Justice,” supra note 193, at 610.

²¹⁰ Ibid., 609.

²¹¹ Introduction, IVe Conférence Internationale de Droit Constitutionnel, “Paix, Relations internationales, Respect des droits humains,” Université Laval, Faculté de droit, 1987, Le Devoir Supplement 23; “Two Parents of Anarchy,” supra note 60, at 8; “The Revolution in the International Law of Human Rights,” 208–9.

²¹² “The Individual in the Eighties,” 3. On the definition of individual Humphrey comments: “By individual, I mean a human being, a person of flesh and blood who is separate and distinct from all other individuals or any group of individuals, a person who is unique, different from any other person who ever was or will be, a person who has a body, mind, will and who knows, a soul of his own, a person who suffers when he is hurt, laughs when he is merry and rejoices when he is happy, a person who can love but who can also hate. Some of them are saints, others are worse than devils.”

²¹³ Ibid., 4.

²¹⁴ Ibid., 6–7; The Practice of Freedom, xviii.

²¹⁵ Speech to Commemorate the Tenth Anniversary of the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Winnipeg, Dec. 10, 1958, at 8.

²¹⁶ Ibid.

²¹⁷ Speech, Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, 1973, at 12–13.

²¹⁸ ILA, Report of the Fifty-Sixth Conferente Held at New Delhi, December 29, 1974 to January 4, 1975, at 205–15 (Great Britain: International Law Association, 1976); B.G. Ramcharan, The Concept and Present Status of the International Protection of Human Rights, Preface, x.

²¹⁹ A Great Adventure 176–78; Alston, supra note 119, at 232–33.

²²⁰ “Human Rights: New Directions in the U.N. Program,” supra note 200, at 391–97.

²²¹ Ibid., 392; “Human Rights, the UN and 1968,” 12–13.

²²² “New Directions,” 393.

²²³ “The United Nations and Human Rights,” 375.

²²⁴ Speech, NGO Seminar on the Protection of Human Rights, Geneva, Sept. 8–10, 1986. Humphrey noted that “it was a rare thing all the time I was at the United Nations for either the Human Rights Commission or the Sub-Commission to discuss, much less adopt, any resolution relating to a concrete case of alleged violation of human rights”: A Great Adventure 263; “The Revolution in the International Law of Human Rights,” 212; ILA Report, 1968, supra note 201, at 440.

²²⁵ A Great Adventure 217; Report of the Fifty-Fifth Conference Held at New York August 21 to August 26, 1972, at 572 (Great Britain: International Law Association, 1974, hereafter ILA Report, 1972); “The International Bill of Rights: Scope and Implementation,” 530; “International Protection of Human Rights,” CCIL, 22–23. Humphrey says that “[t]he system is now in a state of coma, if not moribund”: ibid., 23.

²²⁶ ILA Report, 1968, supra note 201, at 441.

²²⁷ Ibid., 442.

²²⁸ Ibid., 442; “Human Rights, the UN, and 1968,” 12; ILA Report, 1972, supra note 225, at 574; ILA Report, 1974, supra note 218, at 212.

²²⁹ Supra note 127, at 878–79; Social Action, supra note 115, at 12–13; “Human Rights: New Directions in the United Nations Program,” 393-94. Mr. Charles Ammoun of Lebanon was the rapporteur for the Sub-Commission’s initial study on discrimination in education. This was followed by a study on discrimination in religious rights and practices and discrimination on political rights.

²³⁰ It also considered the right of arrested persons to communicate with those whom it is necessary for them to consult in order to insure their defence or to protect their essential interests.

²³¹ When studies or reports were prepared by the Secretariat, their conclusions were generally not too critical given the official nature of the studies. Often they reflected the de jure situation within a given country rather than the de facto state of affairs. This was often the result of the fact that such factual information as was available was brought to the Sub-Commission’s attention by non-governmental organiza-tions. The offer by a rapporteur to lend his name (and thus his credibility) to a Secretariat report or study permitted in many cases a greater degree of evaluation and critical analysis. Nonetheless, Humphrey felt that improvements to the “factual and critical content” of the studies would have made them more useful: “Human Rights, the UN and 1968,” 12–13; ILA Report, 1968, supra note 201, at 453–458.

²³² with respect to the procedure of writing the report, Humphrey notes that: ’ ’the Sub-Commission is at least theoretically independent of government in that its members are experts acting as individuals; and the Sub-Commission has been able to find in its own membership professionally competent and independent reporters to conduct the studies. But the members of the Commission represent governments: the technique of appointing one of its members as rapporteur was not therefore acceptable to it so its study is being undertaken by a sub-committee of four of its members”: “Human Rights: New Directions in the United Nations Program,” 394.

²³³ In his 1968 ILA Report, Humphrey recommended that the United Nations should “publish and circulate as regular documents the country monographs prepared by the Secretariat” in all the working languages of the UN: ILA Report, 1968, supra note 201, at 454, 458.

²³⁴ A Great Adventure 177; “The International Protection of Human Rights,” CCIL, 28; Social Action, supra note 115, at 13.

²³⁵ Social Action, supra, 14; “Human Rights: New Directions in the United Nations Program,” 396; but for a perspective critical of the human rights program, see Boven, Theo van, “The United Nations and Human Rights: A Critical Appraisal,” (1977) 8 Bull. Peace Proposals 198, 200.CrossRef Google Scholar

²³⁶ A Great Adventure 214–15, 296.

²³⁷ A Great Adventure 296–301; “A United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: The Birth of an Initiative,” (1973) II Canadian Yearbook of International Law 220; “U.N. and Human Rights,” 378.

²³⁸ For a further description, see ILA Report, 1968, supra note 201, at 454; “A United Nations High Commissioner,” 221-22; “The United Nations and Human Rights,” 378; “The International Protection of Human Rights,” CCIL, 21; NGO Seminar on the Protection of Human Rights, 1986, at 6.

²³⁹ Humphrey also later recommended the establishment of a Universal Court of Human Rights or a chamber of the International Court of Justice to which individual or groups would have access: ILA Report, 1968, supra note 201, at 457–58; “The International Protection of Human Rights,” CCIL, 21; NGO Seminar on the Protection of Human Rights, 1986, at 6.

²⁴⁰ A Great Adventure 298; “The United Nations and Human Rights,” 378; ILA Report, 1968, supra note 201, at 453–54.

²⁴¹ A Great Adventure 300. See too Macdonald, R.St.J., “The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights,” 5 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 84 (1967).CrossRef Google Scholar

²⁴² “The Revolution in the International Law of Human Rights,” 213.

²⁴³ ILA Report, 1972, supra note 225, at 574–76; “The Right of Petition,” 473; “The International Protection of Human Rights,” CCIL, 24–25; “Confidential-1503,” UN Watch, 12 Human Rights Internet Reporter 82 (Winter 1988).

²⁴⁴ NGO Seminar on the Protection of Human Rights, 1986, at 3. See the working paper on confidentiality by Chernichenko and Treat: E/CN.4/Sub.2/1989/51, Aug. 11, 1989.

²⁴⁵ Interview, May 6, 1989, at 39–41.

²⁴⁶ For details, see Utting, Gerald, “The Fight for Justice,” Toronto Star, Aug. 17, 1991, at D-I + ]Google Scholar Human Rights Monitor, Nov. 1990, Nos. 10–11, at 5.

²⁴⁷ “International Bill of Rights: Scope and Implementation,” 532–33.

²⁴⁸ Speech, “Education: The Ultimate Sanction of Human Rights,” California State University, Long Beach, California, Nov. 8, 1985, at 18.

²⁴⁹ B.G. Ramcharan, op. cit. supra note 218, at xi.

²⁵⁰ Interview, May 6, 1989, at 30; JPH to RStJM, Oct. 17, 1982.

²⁵¹ Bulletin, Amnesty International — Canada, Vol. 1, No. 1, Jan. 1974, at 1.

²⁵² Humphrey was honoured on his attendance at the Amnesty International Rock Concert held in Montreal, Quebec; Macdonald, Don “Amnesty Rock Stars Salute Drafter of UN Declaration,” Ottawa Citizen, Sept. 15, 1988;Google Scholar “Rights ’Father’ Enjoys Rock Show,” Montreal Daily News, Sept. 15, 1988.

²⁵³ “How a Canadian Drafted…,” Abley, Mark, “Author of Rights Declaration Has His Day of Glory at the U.N.,” Montreal Gazette, Dec. 9, 1988.Google Scholar

²⁵⁴ Speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Dec. 8, 1988. For his most recent statement see Humphrey, J.P., “Human Rights: The Necessary Conditions of Peace” 10 Int’l Relations (The David Davies Memorial Institute) 117.Google Scholar

²⁵⁵ Interview, May 6,1989, at 30–31; Speech, “Two Parents of Anarchy,” June 4,1985; McGill University, Annual Report, 1965–66, at 199.

²⁵⁶ “An analytical examination of the Charter of the United Nations and a study of the development of international law and organization by and through the various organs of the United Nations and of specialized agencies”: McGill University Calendar, 1967–68, at 17.

²⁵⁷ The course description in 1967 stated: “The development of an international law on human rights by and through the United Nations, the specialized agencies and regional inter-governmental organizations”: McGill University Calendar, 1967–68, at 17.

²⁵⁸ McGill University Calendars, 1967–68, at 17, 52; 1968–69, at 20, 56; 1969–70, at 18, 23, 65; 1970–71, at 33 34, 175.

²⁵⁹ R.A. Macdonald to RStJM, Nov. 22, 1991, at 1.

²⁶⁰ Interview, May 6, 1989.

²⁶¹ “Nationalism, Freedom and Social Justice,” at 607–8; Speech, supra note 60, at 3.

²⁶² “The Pursuit of Excellence,” McGill News, Vol. 57, no. 3, 1976, at 6; Humphrey, “Le Canada est-il encore une plante si fragile que nous devons le protéger contre les ouragans qui soufflent de tous côtés?,” Le Devoir, 2 juillet, 1975, at 5. To Humphrey, this form of Canadian nationalism “can only be counterproductive” in that these rules protect second rate Canadian productions rather than encouraging the subsidization of a cultural industry so as to make it competitive. In Humphrey’s liberal view of the world, freedom of expression should be limited only by “the criterion of excellence”: “Nationalism, Freedom and Social Justice,” 608.

²⁶³ Speech, “Three Parents of Anarchy,” Halifax, Apr. 18, 1988.

²⁶⁴ Speech, “International Law and the Legality of Nuclear Weapons,” Ottawa, June 17, 1987, at 1–2.

²⁶⁵ St. Mary’s Convocation Address, May 12, 1984, at 6–7.

²⁶⁶ Ibid., 7–8. Note that over a half a century ago, in his speech for the Saturday Night Club, Oct. 17, 1935, Humphrey said, at 7–8:

There is a general article, Article V, which provides that except where otherwise expressly provided in the Covenant, decisions at any meeting of the Assembly or of the Council shall require the agreement of all the members of the League represented at the meeting. Statesmen and the people they represent must, however, undergo a considerable change of heart before there is any possibility of this defect being remedied. In order for States to be willing to trust their vital interests to the decision of a majority of the members of the League a feeling of loyalty and patriotism for the international community must be substituted for the comparatively petty local and national patriotism which our teachers have told us is the greatest virtue.

²⁶⁷ Speech, Bishop’s College School, 8 Nov. 1989, at 7.

²⁶⁸ Ibid., 8.

²⁶⁹ “Human Rights and Authority,” 415.

²⁷⁰ Ibid., 417–19.

²⁷¹ Ibid., 419–21.

²⁷² P.C. 1968–229, cited in Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canad vii (Ottawa: Information Canada, 1970). For the majority’s recommendations, see Ibid., 387–418; Humphrey’s minority report, at 433–51.

²⁷³ See Andrews v. Law Society of British Columbia, [1989] 1 S.C.R. 143, for the Supreme Court’s discussion of these two notions of equality.

²⁷⁴ Report of the Royal Commission, supra note 272, at 418, 434–35, 437–39, 450.

²⁷⁵ Speech, “Two Parents of Anarchy,” supra note 60; JPH to RStJM, Nov. 13, 1975.

²⁷⁶ Interview, May 6, 1989, at 32; McGill University Calendar, 1973–74, at 4.

²⁷⁷ McGill University Calendars, 1973–74, at 4; 1974–75, at 5, 25; 1975–76, at 4, 25; 1976–77, at 23, 28.

²⁷⁸ JPH to RStJM, Oct. 17, 1982.

²⁷⁹ Butler, William, Humphrey, John P. and Bisson, G.E., The Decline of Democracy in the Philippines vii- viii (Geneva: International Commission of Jurists, 1977).Google Scholar

²⁸⁰ Trudel, Clement, “Amnestie Internationale: Y’a pas d’quoi feter,” Le Devoir, 11 janvier 1986 Google Scholar; “Le juriste Humphrey sera Honoré, samedi prochain,” Le Devoir, 25 février 1986; Carson, Susan, “Sometimes Justice and Law Are Not the Same Thing,” The Montreal Star Weekend Magazine, Feb. 9, 1974, at 12–14.Google Scholar

²⁸¹ Annual Report of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, 1982–83; Interview, May 6, 1989, at 34–36.

²⁸² Some of the awards include: Honorary Citizen, City of Edmonton (1964); World Jewish Congress Citation (1966); World Legal Scholar Award from World Peace through Law Centre (1973); John E. Read Medal, Canadian Council on International Law (1973); World Federalists of Canada Peace Award (1982); Saul Hays Human Rights Award, Canadian Jewish Congress (1983); Order of St. John of Jerusalem (1986); see too, Jack Cahill, “How a Canadian Drafted the United Nations Rights Charter,” at D-5. In 1991, he was awarded the Medal of the Montreal Bar for outstanding contributions to the “cause of justice” and on Sept. 8, 1991, was named “Personality of the Week” by La Presse. See Le Devoir, jeudi, 5 Sept. 1991, at 6; La Presse, dimanche, 8 sept. 1991, at B3; The McGill Reporter, vol. 24, no. 1, Sept. 11, 1991, at 1.

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Leadership in Law: John P. Humphrey and the Development of the International Law of Human Rights

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