ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the work of the commission in its principal areas of activities, highlighting its development and trends. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was established in 1946 at the second session of the Economic and Social. Once the Commission on Human Rights was established, it was clear that one of its chief tasks was to draft an international bill of human rights. The completion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly in 1948, was indeed one of the major accomplishments of the commission during its initial period. South Africa proved the first exception to the commission's reluctance to inquire into allegations of human-rights abuses in particular nations. The commission's unbalanced concentration on several cases, together with a disregard of egregious abuses in other countries, gave the commission a reputation for a highly selective approach to human-rights abuses.
