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.
Minerva Bernardino
Of all her contributions, Bernardino is best known for arguing in favor of gender-inclusive language in the early stages of the UN's development. At the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization, although she was technically a delegate of the Dominican Republic—sent by dictator Rafael Trujillo as a "low-risk opportunity to appear progressive"—Bernardino entered the conference with her own agenda, representing the interests of the Inter-American Commission of Women (IACW). Bernardino and her colleague Berta Lutz were acknowledged as "instrumental" in the inclusion of the phrases "equal rights of men and women," "faith in fundamental human rights" and "the dignity and worth of the human person" in the preamble to the UN's charter. She is also credited with the wording "equal rights of men and women" in the preamble for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—she believed that omitting "and women" would have seemed intentional and invited discrimination.