Although I am late by a few days, it's worth recalling that the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights was ratified on December 10, 1948, 75 years ago. Many folks that I know are suspicious of the United Nations if not the contemporary concept of human rights. No matter the rabbit trails that the UN has pursued in the decades subsequent, the UNDHR was and remains one of its best efforts. You can go here to read about the distinctly Christian influences on the UNDHR and here for a fine explanation of the Chrisian foundation--left behind in human rights discourse--of the notion of rights in the Western, Christian tradition.
As the preceeding sentence suggests, however, "human rights talk" has expanded far beyond what can be justified from within the Christian tradition. The number of human "rights" have grown like kudzu and there is risk that the entire ediface will collapse on account of its internal contradictions. I made this argument at some length over ten years ago in Looking for Bedrock: Accounting for Human Rights in Classical Liberalism, Modern Secularism, and the Christian Tradition (download here or here).
Even so, not everything arising from the explosion of human rights is bad. For the goods of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (here and here), go to my blog posts here and here. In short, the CRPD helped save the life of the unborn child of a young, disabled gal in India. Americans, who enjoy a regime of unbridled rights, are generally dismissive of the realm of international conventions on the subject of human rights. Perhaps viewing life through the lens of those for whom the benefit of legally enforceable rights is a pipe dream would lead to humility and gratitude.
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