The Woman Who Rewrote Human Rights On December 10, 1948, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission, Indian delegate Hansa Mehta made a crucial intervention that changed history. The original draft read "All men are born free and equal" in Article 1. Mehta successfully argued to change it to "All human beings are born free and equal"—ensuring women were explicitly included in humanity's most important human rights document. UN Secreta