Against an individualistic impasse

“Any attempt by the United Nations to formulate a Declaration of Human Rights in individualist terms would quite inevitably fail,” wrote the British academic and politician, Harold J. Laski (1893-1950). According to him, to go beyond these individualistic terms, the state must intervene to ensure a certain number of social rights for its citizens. This is an excerpt from his text, sent to UNESCO from London in June 1947, under the title “Towards a Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.