But the struggle for the recognition of human rights and their implementation in the life of the nations is eminently worthwhile. In what other way can we human beings become "human" if not by respecting each other's human dignity and by putting these rights into practice? How else can genuinely "human" societies and nations come into being if not by the public recognition and consistent practical implementation of the rights of each and every human being?

To disregard the inherent dignity of human beings is to destroy them. Any society which fails to recognize the basic human rights as fundamental rights of all its citizens is an inhuman society. Political action is immoral if it fails to observe the standards set by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The outcome of the present struggle for the recognition and implementation of human rights will determine whether or not our divided world is to make way for a human world society. Nothing less is at stake in the struggle for human rights than our future and the survival of our children.

But what are human rights and why should Christians champion them?

II. At its uniting general council in Nairobi in 1970, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches called for a study of the Theological Basis of Human Rights and Liberation. The fruit of intensive study in many of its member churches was the comprehensive programmatic statement "Theological Basis of Human Rights". This statement was discussed and adopted by the department of theology in 1976. At the centenary consultation of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in St Andrews, Scotland, in 1977, it was adopted as "a first step on the way to an ecumenical 'Christian Declaration of Human Rights'". This "Theological Statement on Human Rights" was widely disseminated and studied not only in the Reformed churches but far beyond them. Simultaneously the other churches and ecumenical bodies were also studying human rights. In 1977 the Lutheran World Federation's booklet entitled "Theological Perspectives on Human Rights" appeared. In 1976 the Pontifical Commission "Justitia et Pax" published a study document on "The Church and Human Rights". The department of theology of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches was meanwhile pushing on with its studies. In 1980 it organized an ecumenical consultation in Geneva in which Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran theologians also participated. Members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches also took part in various conferences, ecclesiastical and secular, on human rights. The prospects of achieving both the objectives adopted at St Andrews are good:

The composition of a Universal Christian Declaration on Human Rights which can be endorsed not only by the member churches of the WCC but also by the Catholic Church.
The establishment of a commission consisting of lawyers, politicians and theologians which would explore and propose ways of making human rights a reality in the different regions.

III. Interesting shifts of emphasis can be discerned; when we examine the content of church statements on human rights since 1948. From 1948 to about 1960, Christian concern was focused mainly on the question of religious liberty. The call for religious liberty as the fundamental human right has remained on the agenda, particularly in respect of countries with official state ideologies and religions. One example of this is the cooperation of the Conference of European Churches in the Final Act of the 1975 Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe which has acquired such importance for Europe.

But from the first assembly of the WCC in Amsterdam in 1948 it was already quite clear that religious liberty cannot become a reality in isolation but only in combination with the other human rights to individual freedom and the defence of the human person. It is not good enough for the church to speak up only when its own religious liberty is imperilled. It exists for human beings and must speak up wherever the dignity of human beings is violated and people are deprived of their rights.

From about 1960 onwards questions concerning social human rights have had a prominent place on the agenda of all conferences. Racism, colonialism, tyranny and capitalism have been branded as serious violations of human rights. The rights of the individual are inseparably linked today with the struggle for liberation from humiliation, exploitation and oppression. For the rights of the human person to freedom cannot be secured in a world of blatant inequality. In the human rights agreements of the United Nations Organization, therefore, economic and social rights are also mentioned first and civic and political rights second.

Representatives of the third world countries have contributed to the discussion of these questions at the latest since the St Polten consultation of 1973. The key issues for them are the right to life and the means which make survival possible. Individual and social rights are rooted in and follow from this fundamental right to existence. People in the first and second worlds for whom this seem to be self-evident must also make it their starting point, if they wish to be realistic and take the whole of humankind into account, a third of which is starving.

It is clear from the course of the discussion of human rights that the notion and the range of those rights which are to be considered basic human rights are not fixed once and for all but are developed in the conflicts of history. It is possible to distinguish theoretically between protective rights (right to life, freedom, and equality before the law), freedom rights (liberty of religion, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly), social rights (right to work, housing, education, social security), and partipation rights (right to share in economic and political decisions). It is also possible theoretically to think of a hierarchy of human rights, with a hard core of inalienable human rights which must in no circumstances be suspended, for example, the right to life, to mental and physical integrity. The prohibition of torture must be maintained in all circumstances, even in times of war and revolution! But the practical significance of the different human rights surely differs according to the given historical situation: in one country the struggle for rights to freedom can have top priority, in another country the struggle for social security.

Human rights are threatened today by governments (dictatorships) but also by private interests (multinational firms). These governmental and economic forces must be prevailed on, therefore, to shape their legal order and conduct their enterprises in a manner consonant with human dignity. The purpose of declarations of human rights is not only to protect certain human beings but also to provide a norm and inspiration for the human exercise of power. Increasingly today these human rights have been embodied in international legislation. The realization of human rights, therefore, has ceased to be merely an "internal matter" for individual governments. Human rights constitute the touchstone for political sovereignty as well as indicating its limits. Those who acknowledge human rights must also be prepared, therefore, to act publicly, politically and economically when people in other countries are being oppressed. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes the nations responsible for each other.

IV. A broad consensus has been produced by the discussion between the confessions on the theological basics of human rights: belief that humanity is made in the image of God is fundamental in all theological statements on human rights. The inalienable and irrelinquishable dignity of all human beings is rooted in their creation in the divine image. Irrespective of sex, race, age, health, abilities or disabilities, all human beings have the same dignity and share the same hope: having been created in the image of God, they all are destined for the kingdom of God.

The greater the cultural diversity of the peoples taking part in the secular debate about the basis of human rights, the wider the gaps in this discussion grow. This makes it not only possible but all the more essential for the world Christian family to enter actively into this debate: not in a tyrannical or servile way but fraternally and prophetically. In virtue of their reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the public debate about human rights, the political and social teachings of the churches are today acquiring a universal dimension. Through this reference to human rights the church is becoming the "church for others".

There are, of course, traditionally different approaches within this common belief that humanity is created in the image of God:

Some take the creation of humanity as their starting point and regard the history of the law of nature as the source of the truth of human dignity and human rights. But knowledge of Christ is here the criterion for the way this natural knowledge of human rights is accepted and used.
For others, the starting point is the experience of God's covenant with his people. These find human dignity, human rights and responsibilities, presented in a paradigmatic way in the history of the divine covenant attested in the Bible. For these, the new covenant in Christ reveals through the gospel the divine justice in the justification of the human being who is everywhere a sinner.
Finally, the starting point for others is the personal religious experience of the justification of humanity through God's grace. These find in this the freedom to practise the "right of the neighbour" as a universal human right.

To produce a Universal Christian Declaration of Human Rights, the common belief in the creation, justification and redemption of humanity by God will have to be emphasized and the different approaches - from nature, history and personal experience - combined. Public testimony to our common hope in God's human race is required today in view of the collapse of humanistic optimism and its replacement by crippling pessimism. Believing in God, we refuse to abandon hope in humanity under any circumstances!

The scene of the struggle for the recognition and implementation of human rights is a world of which violence and sin are the dominant characteristics. It is always necessary, therefore, to formulate human rights polemically in opposition to the concrete inhumanity of human beings. Human rights are not dreams of an ideal world but real approaches to the deliverance of human beings from the pressure of sin and the burden of suffering in this world.

The justification of the sinner is the ultimately decisive act of the divine justice. Its context is the proclamation of the gospel to the poor, the healing of the sick, the comforting of the victims, the deliverance of the oppressed and the resurrection of the dead. Justice for the wronged and respect for the humiliated are also among the deliverances of the messianic age. In the world he created and loves, justice is achieved by the Lord God through healings, deliverances, consoling and human rights. The achievement of human rights in this world is part of the history of the kingdom of God by which this world will one day be redeemed and transfigured. Christians, therefore, are called as Christians and not simply as human beings and citizens, to work for the rights of each and every human being.

Questions and tasks

At the theological level, it is clearly necessary so to formulate the theological basis of human rights that it can command the assent of as many Christians as possible. But to achieve this, it will be necessary to examine, present and overcome as thoroughly as possible the traditional hindrances to human rights in the various confessions. Where in the Reformed churches are the traditional reservations about human rights to be located?
At the practical level, we must learn to understand human rights as concretely as possible and how to work for their recognition and implementation. I mention examples which in certain regions also indicate the priorities for public action by Christians:
1. The rights of political prisoners and the increased number of tyrannies.
2. The rights of disabled people and the increasing pressure for achievement in industralized societies.
3. The rights of future generations to a fair share in the earth's resources and the squandering of its resources today.
4. The right to work in industrial and non-industrial countries with their increasing unemployment.
5. Finally, most important of all, the right of the poor to life, food, and protection in the increasing injustice of the present economic order.

(Translated from the German)