Apprehending Human Nature Through the Example and the Moral Direction of the Family
*A paper presented at the second session, “Human rights advocacy in the family, schools, and society,” of the conference “The Role of Parents in Creating a Peaceful and More Secure Society and World,” hosted at UN Palace, Geneva, by the Fribourg Peace Forum and the Women’s Federation for World Peace International, on June 1, 2023, celebrating the Global Day of Parents.
Two concepts coming from the United Nations and having the authority of the United Nations serve my purpose well today.
The first is penned by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. Elaborating upon the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,”[1] it defines “human rights” in the following terms: “Human rights are rights we have simply because we exist as human beings‒they are not granted by any state. These universal rights are inherent to us all, regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. They range from the most fundamental‒the right to life‒to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to food, education, work, health, and liberty.”[2]
The second concept is contained in the Preamble of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” itself, where the whole of mankind is defined as the “human family.” It is indeed a noble and high-revealing metaphor.
These two concepts are intimately intertwined, and I want to correlate one to the other.
The human rights language used by the UN in the first quote I offered comes from a long and deep philosophical tradition and acknowledges a fact. Human beings possess a given nature, which entitles them to unalienable rights that no one has the authority to take away for the simple reason that they cannot be taken away from human nature, no matter the amount of power one may have. Their implementation can be curtailed in practice and their essence denied in theory, but they can never be eradicated. They in fact make what human beings are.
Even if the language used by the UN belongs to the Western philosophical tradition, the reality that the UN’s words enshrine, and its value, is universal. It couldn’t be otherwise for the supranational organization that assembles all nations of the Earth and for a document which is universal in its essence. The reason is again simple: that language, the reality it conveys, and the values it communicates stem from and deals with the universal human nature, the source and rationale of the only equality which is possible among humans.
Every woman or man can in fact easily understand the meaning of that language: any woman or man under any Sun, from all walks of life, belonging to any religious, spiritual, cultural, moral, philosophical tradition or background. In fact, all people, no matter how different they are, perceive the violation of human rights as bad. This remains true even if the world sees violations of human rights every single day. But even the most evil deniers of human rights will always deny only the human rights of others, not those of himself or herself, their friends and their comrades. It is a cynical yet sound confirmation of the universality of human rights.
Now, the society made of human beings who bear unalienable human rights is called by the UN the “human family.” This is another instance of an old and deep language. It comes from the idea that humans are brothers and sisters, and treat themselves as brothers and sisters, or should, because they are all daughters and sons of the same mother and of the same father. It is not the 15 minutes of fame of the do-gooders: it is what makes humans part of the same flock in the most secular and yet religious, or universal, language.
It is then clear that the family that Article 16 of the UN’s “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” acknowledges when it writes that “[m]en and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family” is the first environment to which a human being is exposed, at both an ontological and chronological level.
The family is then the first place where a human person apprehends human rights. In fact, the family is the place where human beings fully discover their human nature. Human nature is there since the conception of the human being, but humans learn it, with all its implications, step by step. In sum, the family is the first and the most important school of human nature, then of human rights.
Good education in schools aims to empower pupils, since their tender age, with the correct and adequate intellectual and moral tools useful to discover their own self. Schools should never take over the parent’s role. Instead, schools need to flank the educational role of families, and possibly even sustain them, always respecting the parents’ prerogatives.
It is then much important that the second session of today’s conference, “The Role of Parents in Creating a Peaceful and More Secure Society and World,” hosted in the UN Geneva Palace by the Fribourg Peace Forum and the Women’s Federation for World Peace International, and celebrating the Global Day of Parents, focuses on “Human rights advocacy in the family, schools, and society.”
I understand this second session of ours as a logic and somewhat practical development of the ‘philosophy of the family’ laid out during today’s first session, “The empowerment of parents as key educators of children and youth.” I think I so far paved the way to show why.
There is in fact only one place where human beings can learn why it is fundamental to always and everywhere defend human rights. That place is the family, because in a family children are taught, through example and moral direction, to became adults through the discovery and appreciation of their own intangible human nature, therefore of human rights.
If people do not defend human rights, there is no human and humane society. If people do not learn why it is worth defending human rights and how to do it properly, there is no real school out there. If human beings are not free to learn the value of human rights as a consequence of the discovery of their self, or human nature, there is no family at the beginning and core of the society. This is why it all starts with the defense of the right of the family.
But a family it is not whatever we call by that name. It is the fundamental educational place where a person is educated by a mother, a father and possibly siblings with no coercion or curtailing. The already quoted Art. 16 of the UN’s “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” says it in the most perfect way: “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society.” For this reason it is even, as Art. 16 goes on, “entitled to protection by society and the State.”
All people of good will, under any Sun, from all walks of life, and belonging to any religious, spiritual, cultural, moral, philosophical, tradition or background, should then come together to defend the family. After millennia, it is still the only way humans know to train the rising generation in defending their fellow humans. The Preamble of the UN’s “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” precisely says that “[…] recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
To say it briefly: no family, no human rights; no family, no freedom, justice and peace. It is that simple and it is that difficult, in a world which is trying to mess up all the natural elements of humanity.
[1] See “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (adopted December 10, 1948 UNGA Res 217), https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights. All links have been accessed May 29, 2023.
[2] United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, “What are human rights?”, https://www.ohchr.org/en/what-are-human-rights.