The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

[Original version of the column. Text in red are tagged with <sic> (needs correction); text in purple are tagged with <orig> (needs regularization); and text in blue are tagged names of persons or organizations. View emended version]

      

PARIS, Thursday .—I have had two late afternoon receptions this week for the members of Committee 3 and I hope to have two more today and tomorrow. In this way the members of the staff who are working with me and I will have an opportunity to meet and talk with the members of other delegations on Committee 3 who are going to work and serve with us.

There are more women on Committee 3 than ever before, and some of the men have already told me that they are going to feel discriminated against because of the preponderence of females. There are even some women on the Political Committee this year.

One of our male advisers and a Polish representative, who is adviser to the Polish delegate on Committee 3, met here with considerable amusement. The last time they had worked together had been when they acted as advisers to their respective female delegates on the status of women on the commission.

I had quite a talk with the Polish delegate, Mrs. Domanska. She is head of the Polish Red Cross and she told me that they do much good work in public health and sanitary services in her country.

I had the pleasure at lunch yesterday of seeing for the first time since my arrival professor Rene Cassin, as well as some other members of Committee 3. We discussed in considerable detail the position that France would take in the committee and we talked of possible suggestions she may make in connection with supplemental measures, which might be undertaken within countries while the Human Rights Covenant is under consideration.

Yesterday morning I met with our representatives who attended the meeting of the UNICEF executive committee here. Much of the work of that committee nowadays is concentrated on the long-range plans for children and, of course, the needed supplies that are available are furnished.

The specialized agencies are being brought into consultation before projects are decided on, and the emergency character of the organization is, in fact, disappearing to an extent. It still exists, however, in the name.

And while the U.S. Senate is willing to make a contribution to this work, the House of Representatives has steadily refused to do so. The other governments have stepped up their contributions to something like six million dollars, but there is a general feeling that our government, through our Congress, should now make some concessions.

It is difficult to explain to the governments interested in the Children's Emergency Fund exactly why our House does not yet quite understand the position of this organization, and I am not at all sure that by and large in the country the position of the House is not upheld.

It seems to many people very appealing and almost essential to help children anywhere in the world. But there are others who feel that when you face many millions of undernourished children in the world, the problem is one of raising the standard of living for whole populations and cannot be considered as a children's problem alone. Obviously, it seems to be that the whole picture has to be considered together, but I still think there is a need for emphasizing the part that children have in the whole program and not allowing their interests to be forgotten. How this can be accomplished and what can be done in the present situation is indeed hard to foresee.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1951, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Paris (France) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 16, 1951

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on: June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on: May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL