Resolution Celebrating 60 years of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Resolution Celebrating 60 years of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the 126th Supreme Convention on Aug. 7, 2008.

WHEREAS, This year marks the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948; and

WHEREAS, Since then the Universal Declaration has been adopted by every nation where the Knights of Columbus has a significant presence: Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland and the United States; and 

WHEREAS, The Universal Declaration is considered to be the Magna Carta of human rights and has been declared by the General Assembly to be the “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations”; and

WHEREAS, The Universal Declaration proclaims that recognition of the inherent dignity and the inalienable rights of all human beings is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world; and

WHEREAS, Article 3 of the Universal Declaration declares that every person has the right to life, liberty and security of person; and

WHEREAS, Article 16 the Universal Declaration affirms that the family is the natural and fundamental unit of society and is entitled to protection by both society and the state; and

WHEREAS, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration declares that every person has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and that this right includes the freedom to manifest one’s religion in teaching, practice, worship and observance; and

WHEREAS, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration affirms that every person has the right to freedom of expression, and that this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference; and  

WHEREAS, The Church’s magisterium has recognized the positive value of the Universal Declaration, which was described by Pope John Paul II as a “true milestone on the path of humanity’s moral progress”; and

WHEREAS, The Catholic Church teaches that the ultimate source of human rights is not found in the will of human beings nor in the public powers of the state, but in man himself and in God his creator; and these rights are therefore universal, inviolable and inalienable; and

WHEREAS, Pope Benedict XVI told the United Nations General Assembly on April 18, 2008, that the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts, and that removing human rights from this context inevitably leads to a relativism that denies their universality in the name of different cultural, political and social outlooks. 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That we stand firm in our conviction that the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration apply to every person in every stage of life and in every cultural, political, social and economic circumstance; and

FURTHER RESOLVED, That these rights are indivisible and must be promoted as a whole and cannot be separated from one another or applied in a piecemeal fashion according to selective choices; and  

FURTHER RESOLVED, That we will oppose efforts to reinterpret the Universal Declaration which weaken its emphasis on the protection of human dignity and cater to the satisfaction of special interests; and

FURTHER RESOLVED, That as Knights of Columbus we bear a special responsibility to remind those nations that are a party to the Universal Declaration of the fundamental principles they have affirmed through it: the right to life, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the right to freedom of expression, and the place of the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society.