Citation, Documentation of Sources

Q. Hello, editors! How would you cite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from this web page: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights? Thanks!

A. As the text introducing the document at the United Nations website says, “The Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations.”

Accordingly, and with a little more digging at the UN site, we’d cite the document as follows (in a note):

1. UN General Assembly, Resolution 217A (III), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, A/RES/217(III) (December 10, 1948), https://​www​.un​.org​/en​/about-us​/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.

The identifier “A/RES/217(III)” comes from the information provided by the UN General Assembly Resolutions Tables (3rd session, 1948–49) and locates the UDHR within the text of Resolution 217 (III), the International Bill of Human Rights (to which the UN text quoted above links directly). If “Resolution 217A (III)” is mentioned in the text, it need not also appear in the note. See CMOS 14.305 for more details and examples.

[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]