Hansa Mehta
India
Mehta was a reformer, educator, and prolific writer.
She became vice-chancellor of Baroda University, the first time in India, that a woman headed a university not confined to women.
Minerva Bernardino
Dominican Republic
A feminist and public servant. She was one of only four women signers of the UN Charter.
Begum Shaista Ikramullah
Pakistan
A politician, diplomat, and author.
She was the first Muslim woman to earn a Ph.D. from the University of London.
Bodil Begtrup
Denmark
A Danish women's rights activist and diplomat.
In 1939 she became Denmark's first female film censor.
Marie-Helene Lefaucheux
France
She was active in the Resistance, serving as vice president of the Paris Committee of Liberation and conducting welfare work among prisoners and deportees.
When her husband was arrested and deported to Germany by train, Lefaucheux followed on her bicycle to ascertain its destination. She subsequently orchestrated her husband's escape from Weimar prison camp, for which she was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Rosette de la Resistance.
Evdokia Uralova
Byelorussia
She strongly argued for equal pay for women be included in the final document.
Lakshmi Menon
India
An Indian freedom fighter and politician.
She helped found the Federation of University Women in India.
Bertha Lutz
Brazil
She was a Brazilian zoologist, politician, diplomat, and activist who was instrumental in gaining women's rights in Brazil.
She has three frog species and two lizard species named after her.
Jessie Street
Australia
She was an activist, a feminist, a lifelong campaigner for women’s rights, and the elimination of discrimination against Aboriginal people.
Amalia C. de Castillo Ledon
Mexico
She was a diplomat, cabinet minister, minister plenipotentiary, writer, and the first female member of a presidential cabinet.
Isabel Sanchez de Urdaneta
Venezuela
She was a Venezuelan stateswoman and feminist. She was a teach and founder of kindergartens in her home country.
Isabel de Vidal
Uruguay
Uruguayan feminist lawyer, politician, and one of the first senators in Uruguayan history.
Eleanor Roosevelt - United States
The widow of the American President Frankin D. Roosevelt, she was the first lady of the United Staes from 1933 to 1945.
Eleanor Roosevelt was appointed as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly by President Harry S. Truman.
Dr. Charles Malik - Lebanon
A Lebanese diplomat, academic, philosopher, and theologian.
Rene Cassin - France
A jurist, humanitarian, and internationalist.
He was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 1968.
Dr. Peng-chun Chang - China
He was a teacher, scholar, university chancellor, playwright, diplomat, and politician.
Alexandre Bogomolov - USSR
A Soviet diplomat who was an ambassador in various European countries.
Charles Dukes - United Kingdom
A British trade unionist and Labour Party politician.
Hernan Santa Cruz - Chile
He was a Chilean delegate to the United Nations, a judge, and a lawyer.
William Hodgson - Australia
He was a soldier, diplomat, and intelligence officer.
John P. Humphrey - Canada
He was a Canadian legal scholar, jurist, and human rights advocate.
Humberto Calamari of Panama, Vice-Chairman of the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, presiding, in 1958, over a meeting on the draft International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - which built on the achievement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, using it as its foundation. - UN Photo
