Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- About the Authors
- Introduction: Towards an Integrated Vision of Rights and Responsibilities
- PART I FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES: SETTING THE SCENE
- Human Rights and Human Responsibilities. Setting the Ethical and the Conceptual Scene
- Rights, Responsibilities and Duties for the Civil Society. Moral Challenges Put Forward by the Millennium Development Goals
- Steering Clear of the Twin Shoals of a Rights-Based Morality and a Duty‑Based Legality
- Human Duties and Responsibilities for the Reinforcement of Human Rights. The Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities (1998)
- PART II RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES IN SPECIFIC CONTEXTS
- Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities
Human Duties and Responsibilities for the Reinforcement of Human Rights. The Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities (1998)
from PART I - FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES: SETTING THE SCENE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 November 2017
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- About the Authors
- Introduction: Towards an Integrated Vision of Rights and Responsibilities
- PART I FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES: SETTING THE SCENE
- Human Rights and Human Responsibilities. Setting the Ethical and the Conceptual Scene
- Rights, Responsibilities and Duties for the Civil Society. Moral Challenges Put Forward by the Millennium Development Goals
- Steering Clear of the Twin Shoals of a Rights-Based Morality and a Duty‑Based Legality
- Human Duties and Responsibilities for the Reinforcement of Human Rights. The Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities (1998)
- PART II RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES IN SPECIFIC CONTEXTS
- Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities
Summary
‘The Declaration under discussion here not only represents an inaugural announcement, but also a formal undertaking’
Norberto BobbioThe aim of this chapter is to offer a contribution to the discussion on the moral and legal interrelation of rights, duties and responsibilities, inspired by the unique approach of the Valencia Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities (DHDR) (1998). This declaration attempted, for the first time, to comprehensively reveal the role and importance of duties and responsibilities contained in our human rights systems and to identify their bearers. This chapter is intended as an overview of the various provisions in the declaration. I will also make reference to other initiatives appealing to global responsibility, such as, for instance, the UN Millennium Declaration (2000) and the UN's The Future We Want (2012).
In this chapter, the DHDR will be considered in light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948) and also as an inspired input to succeeding statements. The UDHR has, since its adoption, played an essential role in the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide. Today it can be held to constitute the moral core of international, regional and national law, hereby exceeding its original purpose.
The DHDR was written on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the UDHR, under the auspices of UNESCO and the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights. The goal of this new document was to strengthen the implementation of human rights. The approach of the DHDR is, however, decidedly different from that of traditional human rights documents. Rather than focusing on individual rights, it formulates a number of duties and responsibilities which are deemed essential in light of our global interdependence. Its preamble states categorically:
‘The effective enjoyment and implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms is inextricably linked to the assumption of the duties and responsibilities implicit in those rights’.
The DHDR's drafting process was inspired by the need for a transition from a ‘formal equality’ to a ‘substantial equality’, with a shared concern for the situation of millions of ignored and marginalised people in our globalised world: ‘the recognition of human rights is insufficient … [I]f such rights are to be realized it is necessary that they are enforceable … There must be a duty on all relevant authorities and individuals to enforce those rights.’
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- Information
- Between Rights and ResponsibilitiesA Fundamental Debate, pp. 67 - 82Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2016