Human rights in the Teachings of John Paul II
Professor Silvio Cajiao S.I., Bogotá

In his speech addressed to the fiftieth general assembly of the United Nations on October 5^th 1985, John Paul II expressed his concern about the fact that "some people currently deny the universality of human rights, just as they deny the existence of a human nature common to everyone". In the same paragraph he stated that although cultural pluralism generating various forms of freedom is legitimate, the "negation of the universal or intelligible characteristics of humankind’s nature (...) makes international policies of persuasion very difficult, or even impossible".

Human rights have often been repeatedly defended by the Pope. For example one can remember his message for the World Day for Peace (January 1^st 1988), in which he stated that the foundation and end of social order is the human person, with his inalienable rights, rights that he does not receive from an external source, but that arise from his very nature and that therefore no external force can annul.

In his first Encyclical Letter Redemptor hominis (17) the Pope had already postulated the need for a real correspondence between the wording of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and its spirit, and the need for those who determine the order of populations to assume their responsibilities.

Human rights in fact originate in humankind, God’s creatures, whose vocation, in Jesus Christ, is to be His son; this is the basis of all humanly authentic dimensions that must be preserved, and in particular, religious freedom. For this reason, John Paul II has announced and defended these rights within the various international bodies, ever since his first visit to the United Nations in 1979, when he said: "The regal path, the fundamental path that leads us there (to peace) passes through each man, through defining, acknowledging and respecting the inalienable right of people and of the communities of people" (7), to then express himself in similar terms during his visit to UNESCO (January 2^nd 1980) or when addressing the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See (January 14^th 1984), when he emphasised their respect especially in conflictual situations and the need to therefore categorically reject all form of arbitrary trials, torture, forced disappearance, exiles, family emigrations, and capital executions following perfunctory judgements.

Equally, in his social encyclicals, the Pope has expressed the Church’s firm position in stating and defending this dignity of humankind; in the Sollicitudo rei socialis, he asks: "The denial or the limitation of human rights - as for example the right to religious freedom, the right to share in the building of society, the freedom to organize and to form unions, or to take initiatives in economic matters - do these not impoverish the human person as much as, if not more than, the deprivation of material goods? And is development which does not take into account the full affirmation of these rights really development on the human level?" (15).

In his speech to the World Congress on Pastoral promotion of Human Rights (July 4^th 1998) and within the context of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, John Paul II indicated that the finality of a Pastoral of these rights should consist first of all in the fact that accepting the wording should lead to an appropriation of its spirit, and also to an educational development of these words; and secondly in posing "the fundamental questions, that concern humankind’s situation both today and tomorrow" (see RH 15), this should be done objectively, loyally and with a sense of responsibility.