René Cassin - The Person

"There will never be peace on this planet as long as human rights are being violated in any part of the world"

René Cassin, born October 5, 1887, in Bayonne, France is considered one of the world’s principal advocates for civil liberties. To promote human rights activism, René Cassin helped found the Consultative Council of Jewish Organisations (CCJO), dedicated to providing encouragement from a Jewish perspective to the newly founded UN human rights system.

In 1918 he founded a charity for men permanently injured in the War called ‘The French Federation of Disabled War Veterans’ and remained the President or Honorary President until 1940.

He was active in the first international government, The League of Nations as a French delegate from 1924 to 1938. Here he pressed for progress on disarmament and developing institutions to aid the resolution of international conflicts.

After qualifying as a lawyer, Cassin became a Professor of Law at the University of Aix-en-Provence and then the University of Paris. He was a French delegate to the League of Nations from 1924 to 1938. Here he pressed for progress on disarmament and developing institutions to aid the resolution of international conflicts.

René Cassin persistently worked on the development of international human rights protection, urging the creation of an international court to punish war crimes in 1942. He was a delegate to the United Nations Commission on Inquiry into War Crimes (1943-1945) and frequently served as a delegate for the French Government to the UN General Assembly and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Cassin was president of the Hague Court of Arbitration from 1950-1960.

Following the atrocities of the Holocaust, Cassin, together with Eleanor Roosevelt, wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN General Assembly approved the declaration on December 10, 1948. The UN honoured and commended Cassin’s work on behalf of human rights activism with the Human Rights Prize, and in 1968, René Cassin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Download Clemens Nathan's speech about René Cassin

To learn more about law versus war, and to hear from Nuremberg's Chief US Prosecutor, Benjamin Ferencz, on René Cassin, click here.

To join a blog about René Cassin, updated frequently by his descendants, please click here.

*Image by Tegan Smyth