The Universal Declaration of Human Rights now also speaks to children.

• Author: Endrst, Elsa B.
• Position: Children's book

Brazilian artist Otavio Roth says he considers the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be "the most incredible document produced by mankind".

The historic document, celebrated as a major UN achievement, was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948. It declares that all human beings "are born free and equal in dignity and rights" and goes on to specify in its 30 articles specific areas of freedom. In December 1989, the Assembly went on to adopt a 54-article Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Mr. Roth has worked long and hard to help spread the message of the Declaration around the world. First inspired to work on the document when he was an art student in London in 1977, it took him two years to complete a set of 60 x 80 centimetre prints, derived from woodcuts which the artist carved in reverse images on wooden blocks.

The linocut prints of these works, embossed on handmade paper, were purchased by the United Nations and subsequently exhibited in the UN Headquarters lobby in New York beginning in December 1982. Additional sets were acquired for both the UN Centre in Vienna and Geneva Headquarters.

Shortly after the first UN exhibition, Mr. Roth considered the possibility of adapting his illustrations in the form of a children's book.

He knew from the outset, he said, that the same kind of neutral human image he had created for the linocuts-faceless, genderless, rounded stick figures-had to be maintained. It had to be dear that he was not depicting specific nationalities, races or even individuals. "I was talking about mankind, because that is what the Declaration of Human Rights is all about", he says.

Mr. Roth collaborated with Brazilian writer of children's books, Ruth Rocha, on the children's version of the Declaration. First published in Portuguese in Brazil, it has gone through 15 editions, eventually becoming a best seller.

In celebration of the forty-first anniversary in 1989 of the signing...