The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the United Nations in December 1948. Therefore, this year we are celebrating its 75th anniversary. It is not a phenomenon that was born by spontaneous generation, nor did it culminate at that moment. The Christian roots of human rights go a long way back in time.
For example, in the sixteenth century, the theologians and jurists of the School of Salamanca, such as the Dominican Francisco de Vitoria or the Jesuit Francisco Suárez, developed the foundations of the legal recognition of life, dignity and freedom of thought, among others, as natural rights, extensive to the entire human community. They were the forerunners of what would later become international law.
Already in the mid-twentieth century, the philosopher converted to Catholicism, Jacques Maritain, contributed to the preparatory work for the Declaration that we now commemorate.
Since the Second Vatican Council, the various popes have clearly referred to the issue. This year is also the 60th anniversary of John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris, which explicitly addresses it.
Returning to the teaching of his predecessors, Francis, in his last Apostolic Exhortation, Laudate Deum, denounces the weakness of international politics and emphasizes, as he also stated eight years ago in the encyclical Laudato si ́, that more effective world organizations endowed with authority are needed to ensure the common good, the eradication of hunger and misery and the true defense of fundamental human rights.
Prominent Protestants such as Luther King or Dag Hammarskjöld have also defended it lucidly to the last consequences in their respective fields.
The Spanish classical playwright Calderón de la Barca said: “Violence is too much where custom is missing”. For human rights to become customary everywhere, there is still a long way to go. The model of so many who have promoted them and continue to do so is an encouraging case and a reason for hope in times of hardship.