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Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights, 1944
The Second Bill of Rights was a list of rights proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944.
The Second Bill of Rights was a list of rights proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944.
In his address Roosevelt suggested that the nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second “bill of rights.” Roosevelt’s argument was that the “political rights” guaranteed by the constitution and the Bill of Rights had “proved inadequate to
assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.” Roosevelt’s remedy was to declare an “economic bill of rights” which would guarantee:
* Employment, with a living wage
* Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
* Housing
* Medical care
* Education
* Social security
* Employment, with a living wage
* Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
* Housing
* Medical care
* Education
* Social security
Roosevelt stated that having these rights would guarantee American security, and that America’s place in the world depended upon how far these and similar rights had been carried into practice. Later in the 1970s, Czech jurist Karel Vasak would categorize these as
the “second generation” rights in his theory of three generations of human rights. The principles were eventually incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (partially drafted by Roosevelt’s widow Eleanor Roosevelt), which was adopted in 1948 by the United Nations
and later elaborated in the U.N.’s 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The covenant has been ratified by 161 nations as of March 2014; the United States is one of 33 countries that has not ratified the covenant.
