World Human Rights Day

The United Nations General Assembly met in Paris on 10 December 1948 to vote on the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: it was the first international text to affirm, in Article 1, that all human beings “are endowed with reason and conscience and must act toward one another in the spirit of brotherhood”. Fifty countries voted in favour. Six abstained: Saudi Arabia, opposing gender equality, South Africa, opposing racial equality, while the Soviet Union along with Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, opposed its definition of universality. Honduras and Yemen did not participate in the vote.

Photo: leftinparis.org/places/palais-de-chaillot-place-du-trocadero

After more than 70 years – despite the decisive importance of that text – we must note that affirmation does not mean application: the struggle for dignity and rights remains a very topical imperative. In fact, in international law there are two categories of texts: those that are not legally binding and those that states are legally obliged to respect.  The Universal Declaration on the Rights of the Person is a solemn text proclaiming principles with a permanent scope that belongs to the first category: it has no compulsory legal force, but expresses the common ideal to be attained by all peoples and nations.

Photo: Focsiv.it

SMALL DEEPENING

In our collective imagination, the Declaration is the result of a centuries-long elaboration starting from the first classical European ethical principles established by the Bill of Rights (England, 1689) and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America (1776), but above all from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen drawn up in 1789 during the French Revolution.

Photo: https://www.missionebuonpastore.org/2

In fact, however, its roots go far beyond the space and time of the principles of Western modernity. This is testified by the work promoted by UNESCO to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Declaration, entitled “The Right to Be a Man. A World Anthology of Freedom”.

It contains a thousand or more fragments relating to human dignity, the rights of the person, the limits to public powers and their responsibilities, from the third millennium BC to 1948, the date of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They come from all continents and the most diverse cultures. This collection bears witness to the fact that the recognition of a right is no guarantee of its effectiveness, nor of its permanence over time. The struggle for rights is forever: day after day, history after history. Our era of globalization and mass migrations, of mixing identities, requires the cultivation of a renewed spirit of brotherhood, beyond the maintenance of territorial and identity borders: a fraternal right is urgently needed. It is no coincidence that Pope Francis dedicated his encyclical letter Fratelli tutti (Brothers all) to fraternity and social friendship.

“Jesus’ conclusion is a request: ‘Go and do likewise’ (Lk 10:37). That is to say, he challenges us to put aside all differences and, in the face of suffering, to make ourselves neighbours to everyone. Therefore, I no longer say that I have ‘neighbours’ to help, but that I feel called to become a neighbour of others” (Fratelli Tutti, 80.)

Photo: Detail of Father Marco Rupnik’s mosaic in Madrid Cathedral

As for us, the Congregation’s Positions on human rights in the areas of migration, integral ecology, economic justice, anti-trafficking, and the protection of women, girls and children – taken up by the Challenges of our Unit’s Strategic Plan – are now a shared compass for our apostolates in the stormy sea of human rights, in this age of globalisation of indifference.