A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

MAKING THE COMMON GOOD OF HUMANITY
CONCRETE: FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT – FOR A LIFE IN
SOLIDARITY
MICHAEL BRIE
Part One: Human Rights and the Common Good of Humanity
In his important paper for this conference “From ‘Common Goods’ to
the ‘Common Good of Humanity’”, Francois Houtart proposes that a
“Universal Declaration of the Common Good of Humanity” be drafted.
What significance could such a new Universal Declaration of the United
Nations have? Why is it necessary at all, since we already have the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which has been repeatedly updated
and fine-tuned by additional human rights declarations of the second
and third generations? 82 Why do we need a further addendum to these
declarations in the form of a reference to a “common good of humanity”?
What more, in fact, is needed than a simple statement albeit difficult
to put into practice to the effect that “All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
83 Supervising the draft of this declaration was Eleanor Roosevelt,
the widow of former U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt; she was aided
by such prominent personalities as the Canadian lawyer John Humph -
rey, the Lebanese politician and philosopher Charles Malik, the French
lawyer René Cassin and the Chinese philosopher Chang Peng-chun. 84
The first step had been a global survey of leading intellectuals from the
82 Cf. Hermann Klenner: Marxismus und Menschenrechte. Studien zur Rechtsphilosophie
[Marxism and human rights: Studies in the philosophy of law], Berlin 1982;
Christoph Menke & Arnd Pollmann: Philosophie der Menschenrechte. Zur Einfüh -
rung [Philosophy and human rights: An introduction] Hamburg 2007.
83 Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948.
84 Cf. on the history of the development of the Declaration, see Glen Johnson
& Ja nusz Simonides: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A History of Its
Crea tion and Implementation, 1948-1998, Paris 1998.
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