The Covenant on Human Rights is designed to form the second part of an International Bill of Rights, of which the first part is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Covenant is a document of a fundamentally different character from the Declaration. It is more than a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, a formulation of an ideal, to which the laws of the nations will be approximated as fast and as far as circumstances permit. It is a statement of law and imposes a legal as well as a moral obligation upon those peoples who accept it to act in accordance with its precepts. The articles of the Covenant will be embodied in a treaty, which, when duly ratified and made effective by such enabling acts as may be necessary in different countries, becomes a part of the law of the land in each of them. It is a project for a piece of international legislation, more ambitious and perhaps more important than any other in the history of international law. If supported by suitable measures of implementation, it could be a great triumph of reason over force and violence in the development of human relations. The framing of the Covenant on Human Rights has been closely connected with that of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights at its first session in January, I947, resolved to prepare a Declaration and a Covenant simultaneously and at its second session in December of the same year proceeded to consider the substance of botli documents. The majority of the Commission were quickly convinced that the drafting of a Covenant, suitable for incorporation in the laws of the nations, was a more difficult undertaking than that of a Declaration, designed primarily to express the aspirations of the peoples for whom they were authorized to speak. The Commission decided therefore to put the completion of the Declaration first and to continue with the framing of the Covenant thereafter. The adoption of the Declaration by the General Assembly of the United Nations, December io0, 948, cleared the way for further work on the Covenant. It also imposed upon the Commission the obligation, in framing a Covenant, to give legal form, as far as may be practicable, to the moral principles proclaimed in the Declaration. The Draft Covenant is based upon materials provided by the Secretariat of the United Nations and by a drafting committee appointed by the Commission itself. These materials were carefully considered by the Commission at its fifth session, ending June 20, I949. The result was a document, consisting of twenty-six articles, which were put in shape for reference to the Member Nations with a view to further revision in the light of their criticisms and suggestions. The Member Nations were