René Samuel Cassin was a French jurist known for co-authoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
Cassin was born in Bayonne. He served as a soldier in World War I.
On June 24, 1940, Cassin heeded General Charles de Gaulle's radio appeal and joined him in London, using his legal expertise to help the Free French.
Between 1944 and 1959 Cassin was a member of the Council of State.
Seconded to the UN Commission on Human Rights after the war, he was a major contributor to the 1946 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For this work he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968. That same year, he was awarded one of the UN General Assembly's Human Rights Prizes.