Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 335

The life of the community, both domestically and internationally, clearly

demonstrates that respect for rights, and the guarantees that follow from

them, are measures of the common good that serve to evaluate the relation-

ship between justice and injustice, development and poverty, security and

conflict. The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy

for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for in-

creasing security. Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human

dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence,

and they can then become violators of peace. The common good that human

rights help to accomplish cannot, however, be attained merely by applying

correct procedures, nor even less by achieving a balance between competing

rights. The merit of the Universal Declaration is that it has enabled different

cultures, juridical expressions and institutional models to converge around a

fundamental nucleus of values, and hence of rights. Today, though, efforts

need to be redoubled in the face of pressure to reinterpret the foundations of

the Declaration and to compromise its inner unity so as to facilitate a move

away from the protection of human dignity towards the satisfaction of simple

interests, often particular interests. The Declaration was adopted as a ''com-

mon standard of achievement'' (Preamble) and cannot be applied piecemeal,

according to trends or selective choices that merely run the risk of contra-

dicting the unity of the human person and thus the indivisibility of human

rights.

Experience shows that legality often prevails over justice when the in-

sistence upon rights makes them appear as the exclusive result of legislative

enactments or normative decisions taken by the various agencies of those in

power. When presented purely in terms of legality, rights risk becoming weak

propositions divorced from the ethical and rational dimension which is their

foundation and their goal. The Universal Declaration, rather, has reinforced

the conviction that respect for human rights is principally rooted in uncha-

nging justice, on which the binding force of international proclamations is

also based. This aspect is often overlooked when the attempt is made to

deprive rights of their true function in the name of a narrowly utilitarian

perspective. Since rights and the resulting duties follow naturally from

human interaction, it is easy to forget that they are the fruit of a commonly

held sense of justice built primarily upon solidarity among the members of

society, and hence valid at all times and for all peoples. This intuition was