The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and also its derivatives and other constituents of the International Bill of Human Rights to which it is a part, have been in the focus of few studies based on different methodological approaches. However, these acts have not yet been the subject matter of scientific research from the standpoint of the need-based approach. The latter is underlain by the social and legal paradigm and is near-humanistic, since as its core it has the real-life existence of each person which is inevitably mediated by the process of meeting his/her needs. The purpose of the study is to highlight and provide rationale for the results of such a study. The article shows how human needs and interests are entrenched in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations International Covenants of 1966 on human rights. Such needs and interests are classified in a rather non-conventional manner. The author determines quantitative indicators of each type of the needs (interests) envisaged by this primary International Bill of Human Rights. Thus, according to the criterion of life activity within which human needs (interests) arise and exist, among the latter, personal needs (interests) account for the largest share (14 cases). Next are the needs (interests) relating to social protection (9 cases), economic (5 cases), and cultural and spiritual ones (3 cases); depending on the type of the media of such needs, the international legal acts under study give more focus specifically to individual needs (interests) (20 cases), collective-individual (14 cases) and collective ones (4 cases). The basic conceptual approaches used to form the methodology of this study were the socio-deterministic paradigm and the dialectical approach. According to the sociodeterministic paradigm, human rights are determined by biosocial factors. The dialectical approach allows to explain the reason for entrenchment of certain rights in international acts and to explore their interrelation, interdependence and historical development. This preconditions the methods of study of the International Bill of Human Rights, in particular, the need-based approach, the specific historical method, and the methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The need-based approach postulates the idea that the essence of social phenomena is represented by their useful aspects which may be used by an individual and society to meet their needs. The specific historical method involves clarifying the conditions under which the international legal acts under study were adopted. The qualitative analysis method allows to study the essence of human needs (interests) provided for in such acts. The quantitative analysis method determines how many times cases of different types of needs (interests) are entrenched in the international legal acts under study.