However, the enthusiasm of Afro-
Americans was dampened by the fact that both the United States
and Britain had voted against the resolution. While posing as the
leaders of democracy and humanitarianism, they seemed more
concerned with protecting their sovereign rights as nations against
similar future charges which might impinge on their sovereignty,
than they were with protecting the human rights of oppressed peoples.
The attitude which the U. S. Government took towards human rights
sheds considerable light on the internal conflict concerning race
within America itself. The U. S. led the fight at the U.N. for
the approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet
the American government has been reluctant to support the
inclusion of specific economic and social rights in a draft treaty.
The U.N. had endeavored to write a draft treaty which its member
nations would sign and which would be binding on them. If the
U. S. Senate had ratified such a document, its terms presumably
would then be binding on the entire nation. At that time, senators
from the Southern states were still staunchly defending legal
segregation and disfranchisement of Afro-Americans.
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