Human rights cannot be “invented,” says Peruvian cardinal

Lima, Peru, May 6, 2008 / 13:32 pm

During his weekly radio program, the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, said human rights are recognized, not “invented” by international organizations, as they respond to natural law and not to the arbitrariness of U.N. conventions.

“Human rights are based on natural law, a law that is inscribed in the heart of man, in the different cultures and civilizations,” the cardinal said.  “Every man receives them by nature, by the fact of being a person, because they are part of our very identity. They are not bestowed by the U.N. or by any law or organization,” he stressed.

The cardinal warned against efforts to create new “rights” for alleged minorities, which run the risk of making the expression “human rights” subjective.

Cardinal Cipriani also cautioned that some organizations manipulate the concept of rights and “limit their action exclusively to political rights of a specific ‘color’ or ideology.

Consequently they are misinforming and confusing the people, because we all defend human rights,” he warned, pointing specifically to the so-called “right to one’s body” which feminist organizations appeal to in order to justify the legalization of abortion.

“That is not a natural right, a woman did not give herself her body on her own,” the cardinal said, explaining that the new life in a woman is not part of her own body.  “What we have is a right to health and physical integrity,” he said.

Cardinal Cipriani also recalled that “there are many human rights that have corresponding human duties and that go together.  Often we hear complaints about rights we don’t have and silence about the duties we do not fulfill,” he said.

He went on to point out that there does exist the right to strike and to form unions, but “there is no right to act with violence, mistreating others, blocking the streets and destroying private property, because that is not found in any human right.”