Peng-chun Chang

1893-1957
China
Vice-Chair of the Commission
on Human Rights

Playwright, philosopher, educator and diplomat, Mr. Peng-chun Chang, was well known in his country as a director of Chinese modern drama. He was able to explain Chinese concept of human rights to the other delegates and creatively resolved many stalemates in the negotiation process by employing aspects of Confucian doctrine to reach compromises between conflicting ideological factions. He insisted, in the name of universalism, on the removal of all allusions to nature and God from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.