Human Rights and Freedoms in the Christian Tradition' ; ПРАВА І СВОБОДИ ЛЮДИНИ У ХРИСТИЯНСЬКІЙ ТРАДИЦІЇ

Abstract

The problem of human rights has not lost its relevance since the French Revolution and the United States' victorious struggle for independence. It became especially topical in the years of the Second World War. At each of these historical frontiers, significant legal acts were adopted to guarantee human rights and freedoms. But in the second decade of the XXI century, this problem arose with new acuteness. Ter- rorist attacks, separatism, illegal migration have become a real challenge to international law and order. Unfortunately, these threats have not escaped Ukraine either. The conflict of principles of human rights and state sovereignty has led to numerous conflicts. Their heavy consequences forced politicians and experts to focus on the fact that the prevailing the secular interpretation of human rights and freedoms' concept foundation results critical failures. So, there is a task to reveal the true existential sources of human rights and freedoms concept. In addition to the practical political and legal aspect, this issue also has a significant scientific philosophical and law significance.The article aims to reveal the role of the Christian tradition in the formation and development of human rights and freedoms concept.This research opposes the radical secularist views and argues that human rights and freedoms, which was recognized by international law 70 years ago as a result of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights adoption, have their roots in God's Law. This law was notified by Moses 1300 years before Christ, but the Gospel became their real genuine spiritual source. Christ's commandments of love and charity addressed not only to their neighbors, but also to persecutors and offenders, laid the humanistic value foundation of the human rights system. Acceptance of human as God's creation, which has a mission of salvation through Christ, determines the core definition of human rights and freedoms concept - human dignity. The starting point in the theoretical substantiation of human rights provenance is the concept of natural law, initiated by the famous Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas. According to Aquinas, natural law derives from God's law. The logic of Thomism caught up with Protestant philosophers dialectically led jurisprudence from the general Christian concept of natural law to natural rights and human rights. So, they are objective and independent of the other people's actions or inaction. Protestantism has put individual freedom at the head of Christian values. At the same time, the Christian tradition proceeds from the fact that freedom without responsibility and love leads to the loss of freedom. This thesis was thoroughly substantiated by Immanuel Kant, and was philosophical formulated in his famous categorical imperative. Endeavor to solve the dilemma of the co-relation between freedom and responsibility led Christian thinkers to the necessity of substantiating the cardinal virtue - justice. The category of justice logically generated the concept of equality, which is the cornerstone of human rights and freedoms concept. Other fundamental provisions, including non-discrimination norms, come from it. Christian respect for human dignity and the aspiring for equality naturally give rise to such a basic principle of human rights concept as solidarity, which is most characteristic of Orthodoxy, and embodied in the norms that proclaim the right to a decent standard of human being. Thus, a holistic Christian tradition is the primary source of all three generations of human rights. This fruitful source continues to supply the value content of human rights and freedoms concept, which is the kernel of international and civilized states' legal systems. ; У статті порівнюються принципи і норми, закріплені у Загальній Декларації прав людини та інших базових міжнародно-правових актах, які гарантують права і свободи людини, із біблійними заповідями. Показано, що теологічні та філософські концепції томізму, кальвінізму і кантіанства, обґрунтувавши фундаментальні цінності природного права, справедливості, рівності, людської гідності, свободи та відповідальності, заклали фундамент розумінню прав людини як об'єктивних невідчужуваних сутностей. Охарактеризовані особливості трактування прав і свобод людини у католицькій, протестантській і православній традиціях. Робиться висновок про те, що кожна з християнських конфесій зробила свій внесок у генезу усіх трьох поколінь прав людини. Доводиться, що сучасний концепт прав і свобод людини має джерелом християнську духовну традицію.