BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
THIS COMING December 10th 2023 is the 75th anniversary of the world-wide publication of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights approved and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 217A at its 3rd session in Paris on Dec. 10, 1948.
It was a torn and destroyed world after WWII that was reeling after the destruction, death and mass murder of an estimated total of 70–85 million people, men, women and children. There were only approximately 2.3 billion people globally in 1940 and about three percent of them were needlessly killed by the incredible destructive force of the human species. As of 2021, the world’s population is 7.888 billion.
The bitterness, hatred, anger, violent death and destruction unleashed by the human species 83 years ago made humans the deadliest and most vicious creature to ever walk the earth. Humankind is perhaps the most flawed species ever to evolve from prehistory to the present.
This global evil that humans brought upon themselves awakened in the survivors of the war, people of conscience, to establish the true noble dignity of the human person that was so savaged and damaged by the hatred and violence that arose from racist discriminatory urges of one nation against another.
That hatred and its expression in violence and death is tragically on display today in West Asia.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights laid down the rights and dignity and the equality of every living human and it was offered to human kind and every nation to accept, respect, ratify and implement or not.
We can see in the world today that many nations have embraced these principles and the rights of their people but many have done so in word only but not in deed. Among political leaders, hypocrites and corrupt politicians proliferate.
There are some nations and leaders that have accepted and believe in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and strive to implement and respect them. To do so is to emerge from the wild savage instincts closer to wild animals to the conscious rational thinking of a reflective educated human person.
In the preamble to the Declaration, it is stated that the “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world and that disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people.”
Violence and war and barbarous acts in West Asia and Ukraine is a total disregard and gross violation of these rights. There can be no grievance on either side used to justify any violation against any persons. (To be continued)/PN
