René Cassin

French diplomat and jurist

• Born: October 5, 1887
• Birthplace: Bayonne, France
• Died: February 20, 1976
• Place of death: Paris, France

Through his part in encouraging adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, as well as his activities on behalf of international organizations, Cassin promoted the recognition of an international plane of legal standards to support the rights of the individual.

Early Life

René Cassin (reh-nay cahs-sihn) could point to a distinguished lineage that at times imparted a deeply personal dimension to the concerns that preoccupied him in later life. His father, Henri Cassin, was a Jewish merchant whose ancestors over many generations had been established in his native region; he had married Gabrielle Déborah Dreyfus, whose forebears among others included a dragoon from Alsace who had been celebrated for his service during the Napoleonic wars. René Cassin was born in Bayonne, in the Basses Pyrénées near France’s border with Spain. He was reared in a household that included his sister, Félice. He was educated at a lycée in Nice and completed a program of studies in humanities and law at the University of Aix-en-Provence in 1908. The following year, he was admitted to the bar in Paris; in 1914, he presented a thesis at the University of Paris dealing with exceptions for the failure of execution in synallagmatic bilateral or reciprocal contracts.

Cassin entered the French army when World War I broke out, and he was commissioned as an infantry officer. He was severely wounded in fighting on the Meuse in October, 1914, when he was struck by German shrapnel. In spite of a remarkable recovery, he was declared 65 percent invalided in April, 1915; notwithstanding his own perseverance and determination, abdominal complications were to trouble him often in subsequent years. After some time in Paris and Provence, he began teaching law courses in Aix, and in 1917 he became an adjunct secretary of a local association for the benefit of war wounded. Later, in November, 1917, and February, 1918, he assisted in the foundation of the Federal Union, a larger organization devoted to social and humanitarian service on behalf of veterans, the disabled, and widows. In March, 1917, he married Simone Yzombard, whom he had known since his student days of 1908; though they had no children, they were to remain together during many difficult periods.

Life’s Work

Cassin taught civil and international law at the University of Lille for a period of about ten years, and then, from 1929, he held an appointment at the University of Paris; he also taught during some terms at the Hague and Geneva. He formally retired from the academic profession in 1960. During the years following World War I, he was active in efforts to mobilize the support of former soldiers from many countries in the interests of peacekeeping. He took part in the work of the International Labor Organization, and in 1922 he became president of France’s Federal Union. He also served as a delegate to the League of Nations between 1924 and 1938, and, when the Geneva Disarmament Conference began its deliberations in 1932, he attempted, but with little success, to secure the support of veterans throughout Europe for the promotion of arms reduction. For much of his life, Cassin was associated with the Alliance Israélite, and he evinced a profound sympathy toward the aims of political Zionism; his conviction that some satisfaction should be found for the aspirations of the Jewish people was reinforced both by his first visit to Jerusalem, in 1930, and by the menacing drift toward fascism and militarism on the part of some European nations.

It would appear that Cassin had few illusions about the gravity of the challenge posed by Nazi and other authoritarian regimes. He opposed measures of appeasement, such as the Munich Accords of 1938, and he seemed cognizant of the dangers that were posed by unchecked aggression and expansion on the part of Axis states and their allies. When France was defeated and overrun by German armies in 1940, Cassin went on to London; he served in the government-in-exile under General Charles de Gaulle and held positions such as secretary of the Council of Defense and commissioner for justice and public education. He drafted an instrument that would define relations between the Free French and Great Britain. He also wrote an opinion that attempted to show that the Vichy regime established under the sponsorship of German occupation forces was illegal and could not be the legitimate government of France. In letters and memoirs dealing with this period, de Gaulle praised Cassin’s loyalty and maintained that he had been of real service to their cause. In December, 1942, a military tribunal in occupied France condemned Cassin to death in absentia. Undaunted, he assisted in the preparation of documentary files dealing with atrocities and acts against civilian populations in Europe. In 1943, Cassin became president of the Alliance Israélite, which essentially had ceased to function in France itself. After the Allied liberation of 1944, Cassin returned to his native country and became, for sixteen years, the vice president of the Council of State. He was named to other important public positions as well.

Those who worked with Cassin sometimes described him as dynamic and somewhat impetuous; though he was not unusually skilled as a debater, his public presentations seemed to evince an acute and finely honed intelligence that could be brought to bear extemporaneously on matters of particular importance to him. During the later portions of his career, he presented a memorable figure: Though he was not tall and seemed somewhat wizened, he had large, thick features with dark, penetrating eyes. A broad, curved nose and wide mouth seemed to suggest a benevolent cast of mind. In later years, he became mostly bald, but his appearance was rendered rather distinctive by his broad, full beard and mustache. It was for his efforts in connection with the work of the United Nations (U.N.) that he became well known throughout the world. He assisted in the foundation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and he also served on that body as a delegate. The United Nations Charter had established a Commission on Human Rights, which was meant to determine means by which legal standards could be drafted to forestall further acts of state terrorism or oppression of the sort that had occurred during World War II. Eleanor Roosevelt of the United States held the chair for the commission. Cassin became vice president; a number of other important figures, including Charles Malik and Carlos Romulo, each of whom later were to become president of the U.N. General Assembly, also took part.

The drafting sessions began in January, 1947, and gave rise to numerous differences of opinion and philosophical clashes; for example, references to the deity and issues regarding freedom of religion and expression seemed to allow limited basis for consensus, and other areas in which cultural differences existed tended to frustrate the composition of a precise legal document. From time to time as well there was opposition from those outside the commission; for example, some U.S. senators were unsettled at the possibility that race relations within the United States might come within the purview of the declaration. While the significance of Cassin’s role in the actual composition of the document has been contested by some of those who were also present, it would appear that his work in revising and editing the declaration was vital.

In December, 1948, after numerous meetings and prolonged consideration of many drafts, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. The fundamental proposition of the first article was stated forthrightly: “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.” The articles concerning personal liberties prohibited torture, slavery, arbitrary arrest, detention, exile, and other abuses; some articles referred to economic and cultural rights, while other parts of the declaration dealt with the rights of criminal defendants and political rights. The declaration was not itself of binding legal force and was not regarded as such by many governments. Cassin himself maintained that the declaration was not a coercive legal instrument but could be considered as coming into force as an authoritative interpretation of the United Nations Charter. With the support of Cassin and a number of others, much later, in 1966, the General Assembly adopted two international covenants the first on economic, social, and cultural rights, and the second on civil and political rights which formally went into force in 1976.

Cassin also held judicial positions, which drew on his international experience. From 1950 to 1960, he served on the Court of Arbitration in the Hague. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which was adopted in 1950, had drawn major precepts from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; between 1965 and 1968, Cassin served as president of the European Court of Human Rights. He was widely recognized as one of the world’s outstanding exponents of the principle that human rights could be upheld through the rule of law, and in December, 1968, on the twentieth anniversary of the day that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In his acceptance speech, Cassin contended that, in the light of the rights that every human being should enjoy, the jurisdiction of states could be regarded as fundamental but no longer exclusive.

Other awards that Cassin received included the United Nations Prize, the Decalogue Society Award of Merit, and the Goethe Prize; Cassin also received honorary degrees from several institutions. Toward the end of his life, he also helped sponsor a conference that provided impetus, several years later, for the inclusion of human rights provisions in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975. While his previous writings generally had appeared in professional journals or as pamphlets, his ideas and experiences were made more accessible with the publication of La Pensée et l’action (1972), which deals with legal topics; he also wrote a book of memoirs, Les Hommes partis de rien: Le Réveil de la France abattue 1940-41 (1975). His wife, Simone, died in 1969; at times Cassin was measurably affected by failing health. In November, 1975, after he had suffered a heart attack, he married Ghislaine Bru; rather soon thereafter, however, on February 20, 1976, Cassin died in Paris from heart complications and pneumonia.

Significance

The life and work of Cassin has invariably been associated with the effort to establish fundamental norms of legal force that could uphold the rights and dignity of the individual notwithstanding the traditional place of state sovereignty in international law. While some authorities had regarded customary law as imposing such obligations on states, others have maintained that no international order could come into existence without express treaty commitments on the part of states across the world. Other questions, in many regions, have concerned the standing of individuals to bring action on their own behalf to enforce humanitarian law. Even with the adoption of the international covenants, some skepticism as to the utility of such measures had remained, in view of continuing violations of human rights by various governments. On the other hand, relatively few alternatives have been considered more desirable and more appropriate from the standpoint of the prevailing international order. Although neither he nor any of his coworkers was able successfully to overcome doubts about enforceability in the modern world, it was the particular virtue of Cassin to have enunciated principles by which state actions could be scrutinized. For that matter, however admonitory actual agreements may appear, in fact or in law, it could be argued as well that the promotion of norms and ideals may have had some overall salutary effect on the international system.

Bibliography

Claude, Richard Pierre, and Burns H. Weston, eds. Human Rights in the World Community: Issues and Action. 3d ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. A wide-ranging series of articles that considers areas in which problems of international legal norms have arisen.

Glendon, Mary Ann. A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. New York: Random House, 2001. Although the book focuses on Roosevelt, it also provides a great deal of information about Cassin’s background, role in drafting the declaration, the content of his draft, and his work as a member of the Human Rights Commission.

Henkin, Louis, ed. The International Bill of Rights: The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. This group of essays, by scholars and jurists, is helpful for the relationship between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent agreements, such as the international covenants.

Meron, Theodor. Human Rights Law-Making in the United Nations: A Critique of Instruments and Process. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1986. This study by a leading specialist briefly mentions Cassin’s efforts while delivering a reasoned assessment of problems in the world body’s juridical position.

Merrills, J. G., and A. H. Robertson Human Rights in Europe. 4th ed. Yonkers, N.Y.: Juris, 2001. Useful for its treatment of the European court and its decisions. A number of individuals, including Cassin, who have been involved in the work of this body are discussed at intervals.

Newman, Ralph A., ed. Equity in the World’s Legal Systems: A Comparative Study Dedicated to René Cassin. Brussels: Établissements Émile Bruylant, 1973. The depth and extent of Cassin’s influence may be measured from this group of articles by students and colleagues from across the world, who deal here with legal conceptions of importance in many countries and regions.

Ramcharan, B. G., ed. Human Rights: Thirty Years After the Universal Declaration. The Hague, the Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979. Difficulties and prospects in the drafting and implementation of U.N. law are considered by the contributors to this commemorative volume.

Robertson, A. H., and J. G. Merrills. Human Rights in the World: An Introduction to the Study of the International Protection of Human Rights. 4th ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. A competent survey of the institutions, legislation, and cases that have been associated with humanitarian law on a regional and world basis, particularly since the United Nations was formed.

Sohn, Louis B., and Thomas Buergenthal, comps. International Protection of Human Rights. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973. A basic textbook that deals in broad terms with international concerns under the United Nations and the European convention as well as other theories and topics generally pertinent to this area.

Tolley, Howard, Jr. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1987. Helpful for the origins of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the author also discusses in the light of subsequent agreements and practices.