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 On 10 December 1948,
the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which has become a universal standard
for defending and promoting human rights. Not only does it protect
all of us: everyone, everywhere, and always, but it also enshrines
the gamut of human rights, from free speech to the right to
education to all other fundamental freedoms. On Human Rights Day
people around the world celebrate that “all human beings are born
with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms.”
The 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights launched on 10 December 2007 is an opportunity to reclaim the
Declaration and make it our own. The commitment to dignity and
justice for all is reinforced. This Declaration is not a luxury or a
wish-list, but a contract between governments and their peoples, who
thus have a right to demand that this contract be respected.
Whatever insults human
dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary
imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of
women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions,
where people are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than
as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of
their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but
they do more harm to those who practice them than those who
suffer from the injury.
(Gaudium
et Spes/The Church and the Modern World,
#27)
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Prayer for Human Rights
God of Justice,
You have given all of your children
Human dignity and human rights.
Help us recognize the dignity and the rights
Of all of human kind.
Open our hearts to hear your teachings,
Open our eyes to the suffering
Of those who are denied
Their basic economic, social, political and social rights.
Let our voices join in declaring
All humanity is sacred, all human rights must be respected.
(Center
of Concern)
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Copyright ©
2006 by SSND
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Last updated:
09 June 2008
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