《世界人权宣言》第29条第1款个人社会义务条款及其当代意义

Article 29(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Its Contemporary Significance

正确解读和评价《世界人权宣言》的前提是将其权利义务条款作为一个整体来看待。但是,《宣言》第29条第1款个人社会义务条款及其传达的意蕴一直以来被国际社会有意无意地忽视了。在《宣言》中纳入个人社会义务条款,并不是某一种哲学的要求,而是当时国际社会的基本共识。《宣言》个人社会义务条款发源于跨文化的哲学基础和跨区域的法律文件,并影响了后世的国内宪法和国际人权文书。当今时代,权利诉求的无限膨胀和社会责任的逐步缺失加重了西方社会的治理困境,群体非理性诱发了民主困境和发展困局,道德缺位助长了信任赤字和社会分散化,良心匮乏导致了贫富差距扩大和弱势群体边缘化,而个人社会义务所内含的道德、理性和良心等价值理念能帮助塑造公民对个人权利和自由的理性认识,提升公民对社会公共利益的道德认同,激发公民对社会弱势群体的感知同情,在缓解社会治理困境以确保每个人的自由和充分发展方面具有独特的时代价值。

The correct interpretation and evaluation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR)presupposes the wholeness of its rights and obligations clauses.However,Article 29(1)of the UDHR regarding individual duties to community and its implications have been inadvertently ignored by the international community.The incorporation of this duty clause into the UDHR was not the requirement of a unique philosophy,but a basic consensus of the international community at that time.This very clause of the UDHR on individual duties to community can draw origins from cross-cultural philosophies and sources from trans-regional legal documents,and have influenced the later various national constitutions and international human rights instruments in shape or form.In today’s era,the unlimited expansion of rights claims and the gradual loss of duties to the community aggravate the governance dilemma of western society.Group irrationality induces democracy and development difficulties,moral absence promotes trust deficits and social decentralization,lack of conscience widens the gap between the rich and the poor and marginalizes the vulnerable groups.The values of moral,reason and conscience embedded in individual duties to community are conducive to shaping citizens’rational understanding of individual rights and freedoms,enhancing citizens’moral recognition of the common interests of the community and inspiring citizens’sympathy for vulnerable groups,and thus of particular significance in alleviating the dilemma of social governance so as to ensure the free and full development of each individual.