Hans Küng:
Human responsibilities reinforce human rights
“Declaration of human responsibilities supports and reinforces the Declaration of human rights from the ethical side.
When human rights, as often happens, are not observed, the reason is for the most part a lack of political and ethical willingness. […]
Clearly, it would be false to think that the validity of the human rights depends on the fulfilment of duties. Such thinking
violates the absolute and unconditioned value of the human person.
[…] We live, however, in a society in which individual groups all to often claim their rights from other people without
themselves acknowledging their own duties. […] The Declaration of human responsibilities is primarily a moral appeal, and as
such, it has no direct authority in international law. [The declaration is not intended to be legally codified; instead it
represents a] voluntary self-commitment.”
Helmut Schmidt:
The balance between rights and responsibilities
“On the one hand, human rights are treated by some Western politicians, especially in the USA, as a battle cry
and are misused as an aggressive instrument to exert political pressure in foreign affairs. This is done for
the most part selectively: the observation of human rights is called for in China and Iran, but not in Saudi
Arabia or Israel. The reason for such arbitrarily selective politicking lie in vested political and economic
interests.
On the other hand, human rights are regarded by many Muslims, Hindus and Confucianists as being typically Western
notions. […] Especially in Asia we often hear the reproach, which is well founded and must be taken seriously,
that the notion of fundamental rights neglects or misrepresents the need for virtues, duties and responsibilities
binding on the individual with respect to the family, the community, the society or the state.
[…] No democracy
and no open society can survive over the long run without the dual principle of rights and duties.”
