Human rights do not have the universal validity that corresponds to their purpose.
To begin with, human rights suffer the physical, economic, racial, religious, sexual and psychological or moral violence strikes, considering violence as a methodology of the different forms of discrimination.
And there are wars, poverty and social exclusion, racism, religious intolerance, gender inequality, censorship, defamation and coercion, as concrete expressions of daily attacks on human rights around the world.
In view of these phenomena, it could be said that there is no universal consensus on these rights, despite their approval within the UN, or, at least, that there are strong ideological and cultural resistance to their implementation, as well as particular interests that oppose them.
However, it is undeniable that human rights, enshrined in international documents from the second half of the 20th century onwards, have played an important role in the humanization of societies, contributing to the progress of human beings.
And this will be so because human rights translate, albeit imperfectly, a deep aspiration of the human being towards overcoming pain and suffering, through the expansion of freedom and social justice.
This aspiration, synthesized in the ideal and practice of non-violence, has roots in many cultures and not just in the Western one, in which human rights were historically forged. Furthermore, understanding the interdependence between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights, on the other, makes it possible to overcome the ideological dialectics that raise objections to one and the other, helping to define the obligations of public powers in this field.
Therefore, working for the universalization of human rights implies deepening these two topics, rescuing the contributions of different cultures in this sense and adjusting the role of public institutions in their protection and promotion.
This is the task that this symposium aims to undertake, encouraging the participation of all those who are committed to the present and future of human rights.
Call for papers - deadline: 28/2/2023: http://2023.worldsymposium.org/en/call
