Final answer:
World War II inspired the drafting of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a response to the human rights violations witnessed during the war. The document set forth fundamental human rights and was drafted under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Step-by-step explanation:
The event that inspired the United Nations to draft the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 was World War II. The atrocities and widespread violations of human rights that took place during the war underscored the need for a global commitment to uphold basic rights for all individuals. After the war, in 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was influenced significantly by Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired the drafting committee. The declaration laid out a series of fundamental human rights that were to be universally protected, including the right to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and economic opportunity.
While nearly every member nation approved the UDHR, some countries, including those under apartheid and Communist governments, did not endorse the document. It established global standards for human rights, despite some later criticisms and differing perspectives like those from Islamic countries, which resulted in alternative declarations such as the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam.