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1 Rutgers Race & L. Rev. 193 (1998-1999)
Affirmative Action: An International Human Rights Dialogue

handle is hein.journals/rrace1 and id is 207 raw text is: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: AN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE* Ruth Bader Ginsburg** and Deborah Jones Merritt*** December 10, 1998 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I thought it appropriate, in recognition of that anniversary, to select for this lecture a subject that touches and concerns main themes of the Universal Declaration. My topic is affirmative action, as anchored in the Universal Declaration, as the idea unfolded in the United States, and as the concept is employed elsewhere in the world. This Association's members, in the 1990s, have renewed en- deavors to act affirmatively, as counseled by the Committee to Enhance Diversity in the Profession and affiliated committees. The Association's ongoing efforts are trained on trying issues - the retention and promotion, by law firms and corporate legal departments, of minority and female lawyers.' Affirma- * Cardozo Lecture given by Justice Ginsburg at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York on February 11, 1999. Reprinted with permission from The Record of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, copyright May/June 1999. ** Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States. *** John D. Drinko-Baker & Hostetler Chair, The Ohio State University College of Law. The authors acknowledge with appreciation the thoughtful review and assistance of Justice Ginsburg's 1998 Term law clerk, William Savitt. 1. In addition to monitoring the progress of minority and female attor- neys, and setting goals for that progress, the Association has commissioned significant scholarship in this field. See Cynthia Fuchs Epstein et al., Glass Ceilings and Open Doors: Women's Advancement in the Legal Profession, 64 FoRDIHAm L. REv. 291 (1995) (report to the Committee on Women in the Profession, The Association of the Bar of the City of New York); Responses to Glass Ceilings and Open Doors: Women's Advancement in the Legal Pro- fession, 65 FoRDRAM L. REv. 561 (1996) (collection of essays responding to Epstein's report); see also Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Laura W. Brill, Women in the Federal Judiciary: Three Way Pavers and the Exhilarating Change Pres- ident Carter Wrought, 64 FoRDHmxi L. Rtv. 281, 288-89 (1995) (lecture pub- lished as companion to Epstein's report, noting that President Clinton's highly affirmative action in appointing women to the federal bench was not the result of any quota system but of a concentrated search for quali-

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