Declaration drafted on human responsibilities

Declaration drafted on human responsibilities

JAKARTA (JP): The InterAction Council, comprising former
international political leaders, is to propose a declaration of
human responsibilities to the United Nations next year.

The declaration -- to be put forward during the 50th
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- seeks
to bring freedom and responsibility into balance.

"There are no rights which are free from responsibility and if
everybody only claims rights, the end would only be chaos,"
former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt told journalists here
yesterday at the end of a six-day visit to Indonesia. Schmidt is
the council's honorary chairman.

Schmidt said Indonesia, through foreign minister Ali Alatas,
supports the council's idea and has helped lobby the declaration
draft to the UN General Assembly.

Indonesia strongly believes that rights should exist side by
side with a person's obligations toward society and that
individual rights should not overtake the interests of the public
in general.

The proposed declaration by the council points out that the
exclusive assertion of rights can lead to endless dispute and
conflict. For example, religious groups, in asserting their own
freedom, have a duty to respect the freedom of others.

The InterAction Council began its work on the universal
ethical standard with a meeting of spiritual and political
leaders in 1987 in Rome.

The initiative was taken by the late Takeo Fukuda, former
prime minister of Japan, who founded the council in 1983.

The council is calling for the UN to convene a conference next
year to consider a declaration of human responsibilities to
complement the earlier crucial work on rights.

The basic premise of the declaration is that humans deserve
the greatest possible amount of freedom but should also develop
their sense of responsibility in order to correctly administer
their freedom.

Schmidt said that the universal declaration of human
responsibilities is designed to avoid a possible clash between
different civilizations or religions in the 21st century.

One of the declaration's articles stipulates that religious
freedom must be guaranteed, the representatives of religions have
a special responsibility to avoid expressions of prejudice and
acts of discrimination toward those of different beliefs.

Besides Schmidt, a number of renowned international figures
like former United States president Jimmy Carter and former
Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser are also members of the
council. (10)