All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

had wanted to stress “the fundamental principle of the unity of the human race” because Hitler had “started by asserting the inequality of men before attacking their liberties.” Later on, Cassin reiterated the point that “the authors of that Article had wished to indicate the unity of the human race regardless of frontiers, as opposed to theories like those of Hitler.” When someone in the third committee observed that these principles were too well known and did not need to be stated again, Cassin quickly responded that the argument “was invalid in light of recent events. Within the preceding years,” he said, “millions of men had lost their lives, precisely because those principles had been ruthlessly flouted.” He thought it “was essential that the UN should again proclaim to mankind those principles which had come so close to extinction and should refute the abominable doctrine of fascism.”