Christian Personalism as a Source of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Authors

  • Miša Đurković Principal Research Fellow, Institute of European Studies, Belgrade

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID1902270D

Keywords:

personalism, human rights, Universal Declaration, Christianity, Maritain, Malik

Abstract

To mark the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the author embarked on an attempt to analyze the theoretical and historical framework that contributed to the adoption of the document. The first part of the article discusses the development of the philosophy of personalism from Mounier to Maritain and analyzes Maritain’s views on human rights. In the second part of the article, the author shows the decisive influence of the personalists Charles Malik and Rene Cassin on the adoption of the document, which clearly bears the mark of the Christian personalistic discourse and notions.

References

Carlson, Allan (2015), “Majority Report: The Future of Marriage and Natural Family”, Touchstone, July/August, pp. 3–4.
Čulo, Ivan (2018), Utjecaj personalizma na moderno pravno oblikovanje ljudskih prava, doktorska disertacija, Fakultet filozofije i religijskih znanosti, Zagreb.
Čulo, Ivan and Ivan Šestak (2018), “Personalizam, povijesni izvori i rasprostranjenost”, Obnovljeni život 73(2): 183–196.
De Tavernier, Johan (2009), “The Historical Roots of Personalism: From Renouvier’s Le Personnalisme, Mounier’s Manifeste au service du personnalisme and Maritain’s Humanisme intégral to Janssen’s Personne et Societé”, Ethical Perspectives 16(3): 361–392.
Glendon, Mary Ann (2011), “The First Lady and the Philosopher”, The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 199 – 219.
–. (2001) World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Random House, New York
–. (2000), “Introduction”, in Habib Malik (ed.), The Challenge of Human Right: Charles Malik and the Universal Declaration. Oxford: Centre for Lebanese Studies and the Charles Malik Foundation.
Jacobson, Thomas W. (2008), “Ambassador Charles Malik and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Primarily a Compilation of Selected Quotes from Dr. Malik during the Creation of the Universal Declaration”, http://www.idppcenter.com/UDHR-Dr_Malik_book_summary.pdf
Jones, Matthew (2008), “First among Freedoms”, The Guardian, 09, 12, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2008/dec/09/religion-unitednations
Malik, Habib (ed.) (2000), The Challenge of Human Right.: Charles Malik and the Universal Declaration. Oxford: Centre for Lebanese Studies and the Charles Malik Foundation.
Mazower, Mark (2004), “The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933–1950”, The Historical Journal 47(2): 379–398.
Kaiser, Wolfram (2007), Christian Democracy and the Origins of European Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Malik, Charles H. (1980), “The Two Tasks”, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 23(4): 289–296.
Maritain, Jacques (1951), Man and the State. Chicago: Chicago University Press. [Maritain, Jacques (1992), Čovjek i država, translated by Marko Kovačević. Zagreb: Globus, Školska knjiga.]
–. (1944), Rights of Man and Natural Law. London: The Centenary Press.
–. (1947), Droits de l’homme et loi naturelle”, Courier del’ Unesco, https://fr.unesco.org/courier/2018-4/droits-lhomme-loi-naturelle
Morsink, Johannes (1999), The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting and Intent. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Mounier, Emmanel (1989), Personalism, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
–. (1936), Manifeste au service du personnalisme, edition électronique a partir de Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1961 http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/Mounier_Emmanuel/manifeste_service_pers/mounier_manifeste_pers.pdf
Moyn, Samuel (2015), Christian Human Rights, University of Pensylvania Press
–. (2010), “Personalism, Community and the Origins of Human Rights”, in Stefan- Hoffmann Ludwig, (ed.), Human Rights in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 85–106.
Muadri Darraj, Susan (2010), The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Langhorne: Chelsea House Publishing.
Rauch, Rufus W. (1972), Politics and Belief in Contemporary France. Emmanuel Mounier and Christian Democracy, 1932–1950. Berlin: Springer.
Renouvier, Charles (1903), Le Personnalisme. Suivi d’une étude sur la perception externe et sur la force. Paris: Félix Alcan.
Rosen, Michael (2012), Dignity. Its History and Meaning. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Traer, Robert (2001), Faith in Human Rights. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
Šestak, Ivan, Ivan Čulo and Vladimir Lončarević (eds.) (2019), Odjeci filozofije personalizma. Zagreb: Filozofsko-teološki institut Družbe Isusove.
United Nations (2015), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, https://www.un.org/en/udhrbook/pdf/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf
Winter, Jay and Antoine Prost (2013), René Cassin and Human Rights. From the Great War to the Universal Declaration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Witte, Jr, John (2016), “Review of Samuel Moyn, Christian Human Rights (2015)”, Books and Culture, 22(2): 22–24, http://www.johnwittejr.com/uploads/9/0/1/4/90145433/a227a.pdf
Wolterstorff, Nicholas P. (2011), “Christianity and Human Rights”, in John Witte Jr. and M. Christian Green (eds.), Religion and Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 42–55.

Published

24.06.2019

How to Cite

Đurković, M. (2019) “Christian Personalism as a Source of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, Filozofija i društvo/Philosophy and Society. Belgrade, Serbia, 30(2), pp. 270–286. doi: 10.2298/FID1902270D.

Issue

Section

STUDIES AND ARTICLES