The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

By Fr. Shay Cullen

“Whereas, recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. Whereas, disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people”.

These opening words of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, whose 60th anniversary is what we celebrate this week, help us to understand the dignity and value of the human person. They were first made in 1948 after the most vicious of inhuman atrocities of human slaughter, butchery and mass murder on a scale never before endured by the human species.

It was just after the horrors of WWII and the nations of the world realized the evil that had been perpetrated on millions of innocent people. The unspeakable horrors of torture, genocide, and mass murder are the shocking evidence that human is a flawed and dangerous species capable of the destruction of the entire species, every other species and even the planet itself. The finger hovering over the nuclear button has been the nearest thing to mass self-destruction ever known.

The human race came together in 1948 to say never again would such atrocities and evil ambitions and world domination be allowed to rise up unchallenged or behave with impunity. Once the universal rights of every individual was established “once and for all”, then they would be protected and defended by all nations who swore, promised, signed, and declared they would cherish, honor and uphold them. But how fickle is the human resolve and commitment to anything. How weak and fragile is the rule of law and respect for the individual when the lust for power, crass desire and destructive selfishness sweeps away the rights of others.

The unredeemed human person can hardly remain faithful to a spouse or children and all too frequently, criminally and horrifically violate their own children. The physical and sexual abuse of children by their parents, relatives, and friends are the most cogent evidence that communities, nations, religions, and schools have drastically failed to convince a vast number of humans to respect the basic rights of their own children. The thinking person asks the causes of the damaged personalities, the social and economic experiences from which emerge the fanatic terrorist, rogue nation, genocidal ethnic-group, or domineering global power.

Perhaps most of the information and educational system has been captured by the dark side propaganda and instead of leading out the intelligence and directing it to good, it is dumping down rational thought, clouding understanding and instead arousing baser animal instinct. Instead of developing the spiritual nature and values of the human person, it arouses the baser animal instincts of greed, domination, and pack mentality to destroy and devour others. The evidence is the violence on our streets and communities around the world.

We can see the global crises of the present in the consumer greed of the recent past. The impulse to consume, posses and dominate for selfish gain has brought the global economy to the brink of implosion, and millions to the brink of starvation. The rights of others almost completely forgotten and ignored.

“Never again”, they said, yet here it is again, staring us from the television, the newspapers and the internet. The bloated bodies of the hungry, the shrunken bodies of the cholera victims of Zimbabwe tell of a world spiritually paralyzed and the declaration of human rights – a wet sheet of paper. Then there is the Eastern Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and before that Palestine, Rwanda, and Bosnia. “Never again” are all to frequently repeated.

The few that strive to promote and persuade mankind to embrace the values of generosity, peace, cooperation, respect, equality, compassion and care, are the people whom we need to be, united in our goal of making those universal rights a reality for as many as possible.

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Contact Fr. Shay Cullen at the Preda Center, Upper Kalaklan, Olongapo City, Philippines.
e-mail: preda@info.com.ph
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PREDA Information Office
PREDA Foundation, Inc.
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www.preda.org