by Fr Marcos Sandrini, SDB
Preventive System and Human Rights interact and mutually enrich each other: the movement for the promotion and protection of Human Rights has so far been characterized by the perspective of the ex post denunciation, that is the denunciation of the violations already committed; while the Preventive System, for its part, offers a preventive education to Human Rights, that is an ex ante action and proposal.
Don Bosco was a great defender of the Human Rights of children, adolescents and young people, having as his fundamental reference the following of Jesus. The Greco-Roman culture asserted that people are unequal: some are born lords and others are slaves. But Jesus said that we all are born equal.
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms this. In his first article it is written: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and must act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
From the point of view of Human Rights, there are some specific areas and challenges for the Salesian mission:
- The family, fundamental for the development of persons, is on the front line of the Salesian mission.
- Employment is an important issue for the Salesian mission. This is why the Salesian Family fights child labor, prepares children for work through vocational schools and participates in the political life of nations with a view to creating jobs.
- School and education, in the belief that the future of peoples will be written by persons with a critical vision of the world and history.
- The right to religious beliefs and manifestation by those who have another creed, such as the right to present their own Catholic religious proposal and to cultivate educators and students in this perspective.
- Minors in situations of great social vulnerability, for which the members of the Salesian Family make great efforts in their support.
Source: Salesian Bullettin
