Premature Memorials to the United Nations Human Rights Program: International Postage Stamps and the Commemoration of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Abstract

This article examines the United Nations’ international commemoration program for the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It argues that the deficiencies of the UN’s promotional effort were mirrored in its memorialization strategy, the most visible and sustained example of which was a vast campaign of stamp issues. In their abstract iconography, these stamps tended to circulate internationally without substantial interaction with national freedom struggles. Issued in immense numbers for more than forty years, by over 100 states, the stamps served to memorialize a spare UN symbolism, rather than to translate the ideals of the UDHR into any nationally relevant lexicon.