|
|
1 in Faith: A Christian Bible Study |
|
|
|
|
Notes: Chapter 12 - Common Good 1 Hersch Lauterpacht, An International Bill of the Rights of Man (New York: Columbia University Press, 1945), 24. Eight pages earlier he asserts: "With isolated, though important exceptions, the idea of the inherent rights of man is the continuous thread in the pattern of history in the matter of that weighty issue of the relation of man and State."2 See Karel Vasak, The International Dimensions of Human Rights (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982).3 The New Encyclopedia Britannica 20, "Macropaedia: Knowledge in Depth" (1985), s.v. "Human Rights," by Burns H. Weston, 715. First published as "Human Rights," Human Rights Quarterly 6, no. 3 (August 1984):257-83. See also Human Rights in the World Community: Issues and Action, ed. Weston and Richard P. Claude (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989).4 Maurice Cranston, What are Human Rights? (New York: Basic Books, 1964)5 Jack Donnelly, "What are Human Rights?: An Historical and Conceptual Analysis" (Ph.D. diss., University of California at Berkeley, 1981), subsequently published as The Concept of Human Rights (London: Croom Helm, 1985); Adda B. Bozeman, "The Roots of the American Commitment to the Rights of Man" in Rights and Responsibilities: International, Social, and Individual Dimensions (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980), 51-102. See also Adamantia Pollis and Peter Schwab, "Human Rights: A Western Construct with Limited Applicability," in Human Rights: Cultural and Ideological Perspectives, ed. Pollis and Schwab (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1979); and Clifford Orwin and Thomas Pangle, "The Philosophical Foundation of Human Rights," in Human Rights in Our Time: Essays in Memory of Victor Baras, ed. Marc F. Plattner (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1984). Bruno V. Bitker argues to the contrary that "recognition of human rights is as old as man himself." Bitker, "Applications of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights within the United States," De Paul Law Review 21, no. 1 (1971):337.6 James Sellers, "Human Rights and the American Tradition of Justice," Soundings 62, no. 3 (Fall, 1979):242. Richard Hofstadter was one of the first to suggest that Hobbes and not Locke was the true guiding spirit of the founding fathers. Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition (New York: Vintage Books, 1948), 16. Thomas Paine said, "We have it in our power to begin the world anew." John Locke said, "In the beginning all the world was America. . .." Perhaps thinking of both of these statements, President Jimmy Carter was later to say, "Human rights invented America." Thomas Paine, Common Sense (Penguin Books, 1976), 120; John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Peter Laslett (New York: Mentor Books, 1965), 343. Quoted in Arpad Kadarkay, Human Rights in American and Russian Political Thought (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982), 1 and v.7 Quoted in Arthur N. Holcombe, Human Rights in the Modern World (New York: New York University Press, 1948), 5. See Douglas Lurton, Roosevelt's Foreign Policy, 1933-1941: Franklin D. Roosevelt's Unedited Speeches (Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1942), 324.8 Ibid., 32.9 See Barbara Jordan, "Individual Rights, Social Responsibility," in Rights and Responsibilities: International, Social, and Individual Dimensions, 9-17.10 W. A. Whitehouse, "A Theological Perspective," in Human Rights: Problems, Perspectives and Texts, ed. F. E. Dowrick (England: Saxon House, 1979), 43. Louis Henkin writes that the "Americans declared what they had; the French declared what they desired." Henkin, "Economic-Social Rights as 'Rights': A United States Perspective," Human Rights Law Journal 2, nos. 3-4 (1981):233.11 Ibid. Thomas Paine not only argued for democracy and independence, but for economic growth and social security. More recently, Bruce L. Rockwood has argued that American affluence and the myth of limitless resources has prevented Americans from perceiving "the legitimacy of demands for global economic rights as part of the human rights conception. . .." Rockwood, "Human Right and Wrong: The United States and the I.L.O.—A Modern Morality Play," Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 10, no. 2 (Spring 1978):407.12 David P. Forsythe, Human Rights and World Politics (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983), 158.13 Jean-Bernard Marie, Human Rights or a Way of Life in a Democracy (Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe, Directorate of Human Rights, 1985), 61.14 David P. Forsythe, Human Rights and World Politics, 202. He argues that this is perhaps clearest in the "intertwined emphasis on socioeconomic and civil-political rights" which are set forth in the two 1966 human rights covenants.15 However, by 1943 David Riesman, Jr. would affirm: "I think it is now generally realized that men who lack productive work under tolerable conditions are not free to speak or otherwise to participate in the community's decisions, not only because they fear for their security, but also because their way of life permits no opportunity for self-development. Thus, the question arises whether or not the rights we cherish are not all parts of a piece, and whether with marginal exceptions, each does not depend upon the other, particularly so as our society becomes more interdependent and more complicated." Riesman, "Report to the Members at the Annual Meeting on the Discussion of the International Bill of Rights Project," ed. William Draper Lewis, American Law Institute (12 May 1943), 7.16 See Joachim Kondziela, "Citoyen Freedom and Bourgeois Freedom: Religion and the Dialectics of Human Rights," Soundings 67, no. 2 (Summer 1984):174-76.17 The New Encyclopedia Britannica 20, "Macropaedia: Knowledge in Depth" (1985), s.v. "Human Rights," by Burns H. Weston, 715.18 Gregorio Peces-Barba, "Reflections on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights," Human Rights Law Journal 2, nos.3-4 (1981):282.19 Ibid., 282-83.20 Ibid., 292-93. V. N. Kudryavtsev asserts that "The minimum elementary democratic human rights essential for all contemporary civilized societies are affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and in the international Covenants on Civil, Political, Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (1966), the recognition and ratification of which are obviously vital. All these rights and freedoms are of equal importance." Kudryavtsev, "Human Rights and the Soviet Constitution," in Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights (Paris: UNESCO, 1986), 89.21 Ibid., 294.22 Irving Louis Horowitz, "Foreword—On Human Rights and Social Obligations," Human Rights and World Order, ed. Abdul Aziz Said (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1978), viii.23 Katarina Tomasevski, "Approaches to Human Rights in the Socio-Economic and Cultural Context of Eastern Europe," in Frontiers of Human Rights Education, ed. Asbjírn Eide and Marek Thee (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 97.24 The New Encyclopedia Britannica 20, "Macropaedia: Knowledge in Depth" (1985), s.v. "Human Rights," by Burns H. Weston, 716.25 Antonio Cassese, "The Approach of the Helsinki Declaration to Human Rights," Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 13 (Spring-Summer 1980):277.26 Human Rights in International Law: Basic Texts (Strasbourg: Directorate of Human Rights, 1985), 14 and 27.27 Antonio Cassese, "The Approach of the Helsinki Declaration to Human Rights," Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 13 (Spring-Summer 1980):278.28 G.A. Res. 3281, 29 U.N. GAOR, U.N. Doc. A/9946 (1974).29 G.A. Res. 32/130, 32 U.N. GAOR, U.N. Doc. A/32/45 (1978). For the debates preceding the adoption of the resolution, see UN Doc. A/C.3/32/SR. 42-44, 49-52 (1977).30 W. A. Whitehouse, "A Theological Perspective," in Human Rights: Problems, Perspectives and Texts, 43.31 Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina, who received the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize, argues that "we must posit as a fundamental human right the right to life in the context of a just economic and social order." Esquivel, "The Human Right to Justice and Peace," Breakthrough 10, nos. 2-3 (Winter/Spring 1989):9. This article, translated from the Spanish by Richard Chartier, is excerpted from a speech to the Forum of Nobel Laureates in Paris in January 1988.32 George W. Shepherd, Jr., "Transnational Development of Human Rights: The Third World Crucible," in Global Human Rights: Public Policies, Comparative Measures, and NGO Strategies, ed. Ved P. Nanda, James R. Scaritt, and Shepherd (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1981), 215.33 Ibid. When he was Secretary-General of the UN in the 1950s, Trygve Lie predicted "that the rise of dependent peoples and the human rights movement will, in the long run, have more significance and give rise to greater events in the second half of the twentieth century than will the present ideological struggle." Quoted in The United Nations and Our Religious Heritage (New York: The Church Peace Union, 1953), 44.34 Former UN ambassador Andrew Young, noting that the "emerging rights revolution" around the world is often being led by the graduates of Christian missionary schools, concludes that "this emerging movement for human rights is directly related to the Judaeo-Christian tradition and opportunities for higher education." Young, "Human Rights or Necessity," in "Symposium: Development as an Emerging Human Right," California Western International Law Journal 15, no. 3 (Summer 1985):441-42.35 There is, of course, great diversity of opinion. See "Worlds Apart," South African Outlook (December 1987):125-26, reprinted from One World (October 1977).36 José W. Diokno, untitled lecture, International Council of Amnesty International, Cambridge (21 September 1978), 11-12, mimeo. Quoted in Development, Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Report of a Conference held in the Hague on 27 April-1 May 1981, International Commission of Jurists (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981), 54,37 Kéba Mbaye, "Chairman's Opening Remarks," in Development, Human Rights and the Rule of Law (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981), 5. Mbaye defines the right to development as: "The recognized prerogative of every individual and every people to enjoy in just measure the goods and services produced thanks to the effort of solidarity of the members of the community."38 David P. Forsythe, Human Rights and World Politics, 29. This right can be traced back to Woodrow Wilson and is mentioned twice in the UN Charter.39 Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples, 4 July 1976 (Paris: François Maspero, 1977).40 Richard Falk, Human Rights and State Sovereignty (New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc., 1981), 192.41 David P. Forsythe, Human Rights and World Politics, 173.42 Ibid., 175.43 Ibid.44 Louis Henkin, The Rights of Man Today (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1978), 78.45 Egan Schwelb, Human Rights and the International Community: The Roots and Growth of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1964), 51.46 Carnes Lord asserts: "there is a very large area of agreement between the various international documents on human rights and moral or legal standards that are widely recognized in the religion, traditions, and customs of non-Western societies." Lord, "Human Rights Policy in a Nonliberal World," in Human Rights in Our Time, 131. However, Alwin Diemer believes that in the Third World "the notion of universality expressed in the 1948 Declaration, which used the terms 'human being' and 'human nature', has been abandoned. Each group—however it be defined—is autonomous, 'self-legislating' in and through its culture. Individual cultures and hence the plurality and diversity (!) of cultures are now the basis for determining human rights." Diemer, "The 1948 Declaration: An Analysis of Meanings," in Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, 102.47 Patricia Weiss Fagen, "Human Rights in Latin America: Learning from the Literature," Christianity and Crisis 39 (24 December 1979):328.48 Ibid., 333.49 Ibid., 330.50 Ibid. At least one Latin American novelist, Manlio Argueta, has given his characters a consciousness of human rights, as in the following passage: "And when they [the priests] changed, we also began to change. It was nicer that way. Knowing that something called rights existed. The right to health care, to food and to schooling for our children. If it hadn't been for the priests, we wouldn't have found out about these things that are in our interest." Argueta, One Day of Life, trans. Bill Brow (New York: Random House, Vintage Books, 1983), 31. For references to "human rights advocates" and violations of "human rights" see Argueta, Cuzcatlán, trans. Clark Hansen (New York: Random House, Vintage Books, 1987), 211 and 214. See also Majorie Agosin, "So We Will Not Forget: Literature and Human Rights in Latin America," Human Rights Quarterly 10, no. 2 (May 1988):177-92. This article was translated by Janice Molloy.51 Ibid. Hector Fernández-Lesdema, professor of law at the Central University of Venezuela, argues that it is necessary both "to affirm a universal conception of human rights and to develop a Latin American approach for the study of human rights." Fernández-Lesdema, "The Studying and Teaching of Human Rights in Latin America," in Frontiers of Human Rights Education, 73-81.52 Warren Holleman discusses at length the conflict between the individualistic notion of human rights in the liberal Western tradition and the Christian affirmation that, because persons are physical and social as well as spiritual beings, they possess social, economic and cultural rights as well as political rights. Holleman, The Human Rights Movement: Western Values and Theological Perspectives (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1987), chapters 2-5.53 Mohammed Allal Sinaceur, "Islamic Tradition and Human Rights," in Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, 198.54 "Building an Authentic World Community," The Pope Speaks: The Church Documents Quarterly 33, no. 1 (1988):23.55 Baptist Jimmy Carter would seem to agree: "Our definition of human rights should not be too narrow. People have a right to fill vital economic needs—to be fed, housed, clothed, and educated. Civil and political rights must be protected—freedom of speech, thought, assembly, travel, and participation in government. The rights of personal integrity are the most obvious of all—freedom from arbitrary arrest or imprisonment, torture, or murder by one's own government." Carter, "The State of Human Rights in the World," Human Rights Law Journal 9, no. 1 (1988):110.56 See Rosemary Haughton, "A Christian Theology of Human Rights," in Understanding Human Rights: An Interdisciplinary and Interfaith Study, ed. Alan D. Falconer (Dublin: Irish School of Ecumenics, 1980), 235; César Jerez, S.J., "Faith, Hope and Love in a Suffering Church," in Human Rights: A Challenge to Theology (Rome: CCIA and IDOC International, 1983), 75; Park Hyung Kyu, "A Letter from a Korean Church Minister," Asia Link 7, no. 3 (May 1985):12; Carolyn Cook Dipboye, "The Roman Catholic Church and the Political Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America, 1968-1980," Journal of Church and State 24 (1982):524; Mortimer Arias, "Ministries of Hope in Latin America," International Review of Mission 71, no. 281 (January 1982):6-9; "Martyrdom in Brazil," in At/One/Ment (Garrison, N.Y.: Graymoor Ecumenical Institute, 1986), 3; and the "Martyr Survey" in Penny Lernoux, Cry of the People: United States Involvement in the Rise of Fascism, Torture and Murder and the Persecution of the Catholic Church in Latin America (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980), 463-69.57 Wm. Theodore de Bary, "Human Rites—An Essay on Confucianism and Human Rights," China Notes 23, no. 4 (Fall 1984):307-13. A shortened version of this essay is published as "Neo-Confucians and Human Rights," in Human Rights and the World's Religions, ed. Leroy S. Rouner (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988), 183-98.58 Ibid., 308. Raimundo Panikkar argues that human rights are not universal but reflect Western values. However, he asserts: "in the contemporary political arena as defined by socioeconomic and ideological trends, the defense of Human Rights [sic] is a sacred duty." Panikkar, "Is Human Rights a Western Concept? A Hindu/Jain/Buddhist Reflection," Breakthrough 10, nos. 2-3 (Winter/Spring 1989):30-34.59 Mihailo Markovic argues, in the words of Paul Ricoeur, that the struggles over human rights "have created a real convergence between the systems." Ricoeur, "Introduction," in Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, 17. See Markovic, "Differing Conceptions of Human Rights in Europe: Towards a Resolution," in Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, 113-30.60 For example, the oldest inter-religious organization in the world, the International Association for Religious Freedom, in 1978 approved a report affirming that religious freedom must be asserted in relation to other fundamental freedoms. IARF World, no. 2 (1989):11.61 R. N. Trivedi, "Human Rights, Right to Development and the New International Order—Perspectives and Proposals," in Development, Human Rights and the Rule of Law, 132. William L. Bradley affirms: "Common to us all . . . is a pluralistic intellectual heritage of perceptive leaders by whom our civilizations came into being. Common to us all is the prospect of a future that demands rededication to that heritage. Today, as never before, the heritage of one can become the heritage of all. Therefore, we know that despite our present inability to find solutions to the problems of universal human rights, we must pursue that quest, searching for ways to fashion out of our cultural and historical diversity a world of equity and justice." Bradley, "The Cultural Factor Reappraised," in The Moral Imperatives of Human Rights: A World Survey, ed. Kenneth W. Thompson (Washington, D.C.: University of America Press, 1980), 235. |
|
Home Exegesis Scripture Worship Ethics Dialogue Parables Email
1 in Faith: A Christian Bible Study † Copyright © 2000 by Robert Traer |
