Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Commission established a special Universal Declaration of Human Rights Drafting Committee, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, to write the articles of the Declaration. The Committee met in two sessions over the course of two years.
American Law Institute
One particularly interesting ALI project was the "Statement of Essential Human Rights". In response to reports of human rights atrocities during World War II, the Institute in 1942 appointed a committee of lawyers and political scientists, supposedly representing the principal cultures of the world, to compile a list of agreed-upon individual rights: an international bill of rights. The committee reported to the ALI Council in February 1944. Although the project was never presented for a vote by the ALI membership, the "Statement of Essential Human Rights" was published in 1945 by the Americans United for World Organizations, Inc., independently of the Institute. Along with other sources, the Statement was then used to prepare the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the General Assembly adopted on December 10, 1948.