Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

The movement towards the identification and proclamation of human rights is one of the most significant attempts to respond effectively to the inescapable demands of human dignity^{302Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 1: AAS 58 (1966), 929-930.}. The Church sees in these rights the extraordinary opportunity that our modern times offer, through the affirmation of these rights, for more effectively recognizing human dignity and universally promoting it as a characteristic inscribed by God the Creator in his creature^{303Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 41: AAS 58 (1966), 1059-1060; Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 32, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, pp. 36-37.}. The Church's Magisterium has not failed to note the positive value of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations on 10 December 1948, which Pope John Paul II defined as “a true milestone on the path of humanity's moral progress”^{304John Paul II, Address to the 34th General Assembly of the United Nations (2 October 1979), 7: AAS 71 (1979), 1147-1148; for John Paul II, this Declaration “remains one of the highest expressions of the human conscience of our time”: Address to the Fiftieth General Assembly of the United Nations (5 October 1995), 2: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 11 October 1995, p. 8.}.

In fact, the roots of human rights are to be found in the dignity that belongs to each human being^{305Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 27: AAS 58 (1966), 1047-1048; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1930.}. This dignity, inherent in human life and equal in every person, is perceived and understood first of all by reason. The natural foundation of rights appears all the more solid when, in light of the supernatural, it is considered that human dignity, after having been given by God and having been profoundly wounded by sin, was taken on and redeemed by Jesus Christ in his incarnation, death and resurrection^{306Cf. John XIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 259; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 22: AAS 58 (1966), 1079.}. The ultimate source of human rights is not found in the mere will of human beings^{307Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 278-279.}, in the reality of the State, in public powers, but in man himself and in God his Creator. These rights are “universal, inviolable, inalienable”^{308John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 259.}. Universal because they are present in all human beings, without exception of time, place or subject. Inviolable insofar as “they are inherent in the human person and in human dignity”^{309John Paul II, Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 3: AAS 91 (1999), 379.} and because “it would be vain to proclaim rights, if at the same time everything were not done to ensure the duty of respecting them by all people, everywhere, and for all people”^{310Paul VI, Message to the International Conference on Human Rights, Teheran (15 April 1968): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 2 May 1968, p. 4.}. Inalienable insofar as “no one can legitimately deprive another person, whoever they may be, of these rights, since this would do violence to their nature”^{311John Paul II, Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 3: AAS 91 (1999), 379.}.

Human rights are to be defended not only individually but also as a whole: protecting them only partially would imply a kind of failure to recognize them. They correspond to the demands of human dignity and entail, in the first place, the fulfilment of the essential needs of the person in the material and spiritual spheres. “These rights apply to every stage of life and to every political, social, economic and cultural situation. Together they form a single whole, directed unambiguously towards the promotion of every aspect of the good of both the person and society ... The integral promotion of every category of human rights is the true guarantee of full respect for each individual right”.^{312John Paul II, Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 3: AAS 91 (1999), 379.} Universality and indivisibility are distinctive characteristics of human rights: they are “two guiding principles which at the same time demand that human rights be rooted in each culture and that their juridical profile be strengthened so as to ensure that they are fully observed”^{313John Paul II, Message for the 1998 World Day of Peace, 2: AAS 90 (1998), 149.}.