Prayers and Reflections on Human Rights
Our ‘human rights’ are:
The fundamental rights which humans have by the fact of being human,
and which are
neither created nor can be abrogated by any government.
First articulated and summarised in 1948, the UN Universal
Declaration of Human Rights has 30 ‘articles’, each setting out a
different aspect of these fundamental rights. Overarching them all
are the first two articles which make explicit the true universality
of our Human Rights. It is good to pause and contemplate each in
turn:
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one
another in a spirit of brotherhood.
We can stop a moment to ponder this with the words of Jeremiah:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born
I consecrated you.
Jeremiah 1:5
Lord, may we remember that
all life.
You created us all in your
and so have given us each,
You endowed us with reason
to act towards each other
in a spirit of brotherhood
you created us and you are the source of
own image
equally, a dignity beyond all others.
and conscience and it is you who calls us
and sisterhood.
Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in
this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the
political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or
territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent,
trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of
sovereignty.
We can look at this in the light of the words of St Paul:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28
For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these
members do not all have the
same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each
member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according
to the grace given to each of us. Romans 12:4-6
Lord, it is you who have made us all and you who gather us to form
one family.
We are each so differently gifted and our lives celebrate many
cultures and traditions,
and yet we are one.
Open our ears to hear your call to live in solidarity, to form one
body, one family.
The Declaration goes on to describe specific rights in more detail
and we can see three
aspects of our ‘being human’ that they acknowledge and protect:
Civil rights protect our basic right to life: in addition they claim
for us a right to freedom
from torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment;
freedom from
slavery and forced labour; the right to fair hearing, dignity and
equality before the law
and the right to privacy.
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains
of injustice and untie the cords of
the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Isaiah
58:6
As we rejoice in the gift of our own lives and give thanks for the
freedoms we enjoy,
we remember all those who are not free. Through our commitment in
prayer may we be open to commitment in practice.
Political rights protect our fundamental freedom to be heard, the
freedoms associated with
democracy: freedom of expression, association, assembly, opinion,
belief and religion, and
movement.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6
May we never take our freedoms for granted,
and be willing to speak up for those who have no voice.
We remember the work of the Church of England, the Anglican
Communion and the mission
and development agencies, that they may have the courage to bear
witness to their own faith by
taking the risk of protecting others.
We pray also for the work of our parliament, that in the midst of
all the other priorities and
voices to be heard, it may remember to be the voice of the
voiceless.
Social and economic rights protect our right of access to food,
water, housing, healthcare,
work, an adequate standard of living, education, and social
security.
I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you
gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after
me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...‘Truly I tell you,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters
of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 25: 35..40
Sometimes we are called to prayer and sometimes we are called to
action.
Lord may our ears be attentive to your call, whatever it may be and
wherever it may lead us.