March DICTA Publication: WORDS by Melissa Carrasco

In the March 2023 edition of the Knoxville Bar Association’s DICTA publication, Melissa Carrasco tells the story of two remarkable women. Hansa Mehta and Minerva Bernardino advocated for women’s rights within their own countries of India and the Dominican Republic. The 1947 United Nations Commission on Human Rights Committee brought Hansa, Minerva, and Eleanor Roosevelt together to draft a document to outline rights that must be considered “fundamental.” Hansa “lobbied the Committee to make one, simple change: replace the ‘men’ with ‘human beings.’ Minerva “lobbied for three months to add one word to the Preamble to the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights” that word was sex. Both of these women found success in gaining increased representation for women, and they “altered a Declaration that has since given rise to over 70 treaties protecting various human rights all of the world.”

To read the full article, click here!

To read the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, click here.

To learn more about Melissa Carrasco and her areas of practice, click here!