The People Who Helped Build the United Nations

Putting equality into the UN Charter The Brazilian delegate argued at the 1945 San Francisco conference for explicit recognition of women’s rights in the Charter. Read the preamble’s reference to the equal rights of men and women with that debate in mind. The words mattered because they made equality part of the organization’s founding commitments.

Making sex discrimination explicit The Dominican delegate signed the Charter and worked with other Latin American delegates to get women’s rights and nondiscrimination into the document. The Charter’s language on fundamental freedoms names sex among the grounds on which people should not be distinguished. Bernardino’s role helps explain why that specificity was fought for.

Taking the UN from preparation to its first meetings Jebb served as executive secretary of the Preparatory Commission and became acting secretary-general in October 1945. He was in place before a permanent secretary-general was elected. Start here if you want to see the handoff from governments negotiating an organization to staff having to get it working.

Becoming the first elected secretary-general The General Assembly elected Lie in 1946. His first bulletin established headquarters in New York and a temporary office in London. Set his entry beside Jebb’s to see the difference between getting the first meetings underway and making an institution that would stay.

Chairing the human rights drafting committee Roosevelt chaired the committee that worked on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Put her role next to those of Hansa Mehta and P. C. Chang to see why a chair and a text’s drafters do different work. Roosevelt had to help a group representing different governments and traditions arrive at language it could use together.

Making the declaration’s opening language inclusive Mehta is credited with helping change the proposed wording of the opening article from all men to all human beings. It is a small change on the page and a large one for the reader. The first words tell you whom the declaration is speaking about.

Bringing different traditions into the drafting room Chang was vice-chair of the human rights drafting committee. His contributions drew on Chinese philosophy, including ideas associated with Confucianism. Read his role alongside Roosevelt’s to see how the committee’s work depended on arguments that could speak to more than one philosophical tradition.

Setting out an early vision for UNESCO Huxley served as executive secretary of UNESCO’s preparatory commission and became its first director-general. His 1946 statement on the organization’s purpose ties education, science, and culture to the work of peace. It is worth reading alongside the constitution to see what one early leader wanted the new institution to do.

Proposing an emergency fund for children Rajchman, representing Poland, proposed using remaining relief resources to set up a children’s emergency fund. The General Assembly established the fund that became UNICEF in December 1946. His proposal is a good example of how a temporary pool of resources could be put to work through a new institution.

Putting UNICEF’s relief work into practice As the first executive director, Pate insisted that aid reach children in defeated countries as well as victorious ones. During his tenure, UNICEF’s mandate broadened to include children and families across the developing world. The shift shows how a fund created for an emergency began to find a longer-term role.

Launching the World Health Organization Chisholm became WHO’s first director-general in 1948. He had already helped frame the organization’s broad idea of health, which included mental and social well-being alongside physical well-being. That definition gives you a way to read the founding constitution and see how far its ambitions extended beyond treating disease.

Putting United Nations mediation to work As acting mediator, Bunche led talks that produced armistice agreements between Israel and neighboring Arab states in 1949. The talks at Rhodes show how a UN representative could help parties negotiate an end to immediate fighting while leaving broader political questions open. Bunche later helped supervise the UN emergency force deployment in 1956.

Leading the new UN refugee office The Dutch lawyer and journalist became the first UN high commissioner for refugees. The office began work in 1951 with an initial three-year term. That short mandate helps explain the challenge he inherited: create a functioning office while governments still treated the job as a temporary response.

Presiding over the General Assembly Pandit of India became the first woman elected president of the General Assembly in 1953. Her post is useful to compare with the secretary-general’s. The president leads the work of the member states’ assembly, a different kind of authority from running the UN Secretariat.

Proposing an emergency UN force during the Suez crisis Canada’s foreign minister pressed for a UN force in 1956. The General Assembly adopted the Canadian proposal asking the secretary-general to prepare a plan, with the consent of the countries concerned. Read his entry alongside Hammarskjöld’s to see what a government proposed and what the UN then had to organize.

Organizing the emergency force for Suez As secretary-general, Hammarskjöld helped turn the General Assembly’s decision into the United Nations Emergency Force. The mission deployed in 1956. He had to translate an instruction to set up a force into practical arrangements for a mission under UN authority, a different task from securing the vote that made it possible.