Pope’s UN Address Urges Proper Understanding of Human Rights, UN Role

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.

     (NEW YORK — C-FAM) In his address last week to the United Nations General Assembly, Pope Benedict XVI urged diplomats to restore a proper understanding of human rights and a maintain correct perspective on the role of the UN in the world. Saying his presence was "a sign of esteem" for the UN, the Pope reminded leaders that the UN is an organization through which "States have established universal objectives" and that only by getting back to its founding principles could the UN be part of sustaining "humanity's hope for a better world."
            
     The Pope acknowledged the rise of human rights in politics, saying, "Human rights are increasingly being presented as the common language and the ethical substratum of international relations." But he reminded leaders that human rights are "grounded and shaped by the transcendent nature of the person" and "based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations." "Removing them from this context," he said, "would mean restricting their range and yielding to a relativistic conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation of rights could vary and their universality would be denied in the name of different cultural, political, social and even religious outlooks."
            
     These "social outlooks" and recent trends have been used by UN human rights treaty bodies and special rapporteurs to justify their attempts to re-interpret UN documents to claim new rights such as abortion on demand and special privileges on the basis of sexual orientation. The Pope specifically addressed attempts to re-interpret the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its 60th year, and urged leaders to resist such pressure. "The Declaration was adopted as a 'common standard of achievement' and cannot be applied piecemeal, according to trends or selective choices that merely run the risk of contradicting the unity of the human person and thus the indivisibility of human rights," he said. "Indivisibility" is often seen as requiring recognition that the right to life is a prerequisite for all of the other rights in the declaration. Furthermore, when the Declaration was negotiated, Catholic States successfully ensured that the "right to life" article was phrased in such a way that it protects national pro-life laws.
            
     At a time when UN agencies often promote controversial social policies such as population control under the moniker of a "rights based approach" to development, the pope warned of the "normative decisions taken by the various agencies of those in power," and pointed out the way "the results of scientific achievement and technological advances have been applied…represent a clear violation of the order of creation, to the point where not only is the sacred character of life contradicted, but the human person and the family are robbed of their natural identity."
            
     The Pope's remarks reminded UN leaders that the UN can never replace religion as a moral authority. He said leaders should draw upon the results of religious dialogue but must never suppress it, replace it, or set politics and religion at odds. "It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one's rights," he said, and "religious liberty…has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion."

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