Cassin, René-Samuel (1887–1976)

French jurist, professor, humanitarian, and internationalist. Cassin was a distinguished proponent of the legal and moral recognition of human rights. His life's work was based on the belief that if states recognize the dignity of man in their laws then human responses will be constructive. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1968 at the age of 81 for his contribution to the protection of human worth and the rights of man.

His legal knowledge, humanitarian inclinations, and his internationalism all came together in his work for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, as vice-chairman to Eleanor Roosevelt (1946–1953) and then chairman (1955–1957). He made a major contribution to the drafting of the Declaration of Human Rights, approved by the General Assembly in 1948.

Cassin also held important judicial positions throughout his career. He founded the French Federation of Disabled War Veterans (1918) and was its president until 1940, and from 1924 until 1938 he was French delegate to the League of Nations. He joined de Gaulle in London in 1940 and drafted the legal texts of his incipient government, conducting delicate negotiations with the UK, including the Churchill-De Gaulle accord.

His contribution to legal scholarship was wide ranging and he published dozens of topical articles on human rights. Cassin's many publications include L'inegalite(acute) entre l'Homme et la Femme dans la Législation Civile (1919), Pour la Défense de la Paix (1936), and How the Charter on Human Rights was Born Unesco Courier (1968).

Born in Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantique, France, Cassin received a degree in humanities along with one in law from Aix-en-Provence in 1908. He took first place in the law faculty's competitive examination and received a doctorate in juridical, economic, and political law from Aix in 1914. Cassin was inducted into the infantry in 1914, and through the intervention of his mother, coincidentally nursing in the field hospital he was taken to, survived serious wounding by German shrapnel in 1916. He recovered although he was never free of the pain of his injuries. He started his academic career as a professor at Aix.

He took up a professorship in law at Lille in 1920 and from 1929 to 1960 was chair of fiscal and civil law at the University of Paris. During his academic career he lectured at the National School of Overseas Territories, in Africa, and the Middle and Far East. He also lectured at The Hague and at the Institute of Advanced International Studies in Geneva.