Peace With Justice: The Grounds of Human Rights From a Faith-Based Perspective

Neither the Charter of the United Nations of 1945 nor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 makes any mention of religion as a source of fundamental values and a basis for the idea of equal rights pertaining to all human beings. Actually, an attempt by the Netherlands delegate Father Leo Beaufort OP1 to amend the preamble with a reference to Man s divine origin and his eternal destiny, was seen as a religious statement contrary to the universal nature of the declaration, and accordingly rejected. For the Saudi Arabian delegate, the fact that the declaration began and ended with the human being, without any reference to God, was sufficient reason to abstain. Consequently, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is often typified as a secular religion (religio in the classical sense of ‘binding ), arising from two centuries of Enlightenment thinking. Historically, its starting point is, indeed, situated in the fundamental freedoms of the individual human being, which have to be protected against abuse of power by the Sovereign (the State). Indeed, although in the final articles the text does refer to the community and duties of individuals with respect to the community, the gist of the UDHR remains centred on the individual.