Civil society and international human rights: The Commission to Study the Organization of Peace and the origins of the UN human rights regime

This article examines the role of the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace (CSOP) as the essential intellectual and political force behind the identification of the Allied cause with the cause of human rights. Well before the Atlantic Charter and President Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, the CSOP called for a new international order rooted in universal respect for human rights. This vision was carried to both policyrnakers and the American public, resulting in Article 68 of the UN Charter. This Article required the international organization to create a human rights commission, whose first task would be the drafting of an international bill of rights.