dominant vocabulary through which the protection of human beings at the global level was conceived. Immediately after the actual setting up of the institutional machinery provided for by the Charter, the new Commission on Human Rights began its work for the creation of an International Bill of Rights. In a first step, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted, which the General Assembly adopted on December 10, 1948. As Tomuschat writes in his introduction to the ICCPR, “[i]n order to make human rights an instrument effectively shaping the lives of individuals and nations, more than just a political proclamation was needed. Hence, from the very outset there was general agreement to the effect that the substance of the Universal Declaration should be translated into the hard legal form of an international treaty”.15 By Resolution 543 (VI) of February 4, 1952, the General Assembly directed the Commission on Human Rights to prepare a Covenant setting forth civil and political rights and also a parallel Covenant providing for economic, social and cultural rights. On December 16, 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, along with the 15 Christian Tomuschat, “Introduction to the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights,” available at: <http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/iccpr/iccpr.html>. 16 Resolution 2200 (XXI). 24