Human responsibility the basis for human rights, Kung says

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 11, 1998 by Patricia Lefevere

It's not that Hans Kung is too big for the Catholic church, or the church too confining for his scholarship. It's rather that the Swiss theologian has gradually turned his attention to a broader arena -- the world -- since the Vatican sacked him as a Catholic theologian in 1979.

In the nearly two decades since Rome withdrew his missio canonica, or license to teach Catholic theology, Kung has expanded his vision beyond change in the church and toward what he terms "a realistic vision of the future." In his latest book in English, and his fourth on the subject since 1991 -- A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics (Oxford University Press, 1998) -- he places a tall order, universal ethical standards and a vision of peace among nations.

The latter won't occur without peace first among the religions, he says. And Kung has spent much of the 1980s and early 1990s studying and writing about the world's religions.

Filming a Jewish wedding

NCR spoke with Kung, now professor emeritus at the University of Tubingen, Germany, during a recent visit to New York. He came to film a Jewish wedding--part of a seven-hour television series he's developing to present the major world religions and their contribution to global ethics and world peace.

It's a project that is taking him to El Salvador, India, China, Japan, Australia, Zimbabwe and Israel, and one that he hopes to see aired on networks around the world next fall. The series is sponsored by the Global Ethic Foundation, which Kung heads in Germany and Switzerland. The foundation is underwritten by a 5 million Deutschemark grant from its founders, Count and Countess van der Groeben of Germany.

Since becoming its president in 1995, Kung has met with bankers, heads of corporations, government and faith leaders, presenting the case for establishing universal norms that cross political, economic and religious lines, but are morally acceptable to all -- even nonbelievers.

"The reason why human fights are not realized in many nations is because there is no moral impetus behind them," Kung said. Without moral energy, politicians and statesmen will merely do what is "opportunistic, comfortable or politically expedient," not what is right and necessary.

He points to Bosnia and argues that had the United States, Germany, France and Britain agreed that they would not tolerate war in former Yugoslavia, but would intervene, the bloodbath and ensuing loss of human rights could have been averted. What the Western powers lacked was a clear ethic and the will to abide by it, he said.

Kung also finds moral decay in global economic trends. In June of 1997, he and German President Roman Herzog stood atop the tallest skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, surveying the landscape of one of the prominent Asian "tigers." Within days, Thailand was forced to devalue its currency, the baht, and soon after Asian economies from Jakarta to Tokyo fell into disarray.

The Indonesian situation, with its beating of Chinese shopkeepers, looting of businesses, rape of women and run on the banks "showed clearly that the crisis was not just economic, but also moral," he said. On the economic side, widespread cronyism, nepotism and corruption were all activities that Western leaders and firms knew about and even encouraged, he said.

Kung criticized both former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's fishing expedition with Indonesian President Suharto while Suharto was in office, and President Clinton's starting his China trip in Tiananmen Square. "As heads of state they have to visit, but they should also show they disagree with these violators of human rights," he told NCR.

Kung is convinced that the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights will not be heeded without first a Universal Declaration of Human Responsibility. The United Nations has been working on such a proposal. Several nongovernmental organizations -- including church groups represented at the United Nations -- discussed the idea in "values" caucuses that preceded the 1995 conferences on social development and on women.

If one were to view the Human Rights charter as a chair, its four legs would be the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, the founding of the Red Cross in 1864, the League of Nations in 1920 and the United Nations in 1945, Kung said. Each of these compacts was designed to grant liberties, mitigate suffering, resolve disputes, protect human rights and keep peace.

Shared obligations

But the existence of the Human Rights declaration has not outlawed human rights abuses in China, Tibet, Myanmar, Indonesia, Israel, Palestine, Bosnia and elsewhere. While every right implies obligations, there are certain responsibilities that have yet to be included in human rights, Kung said, even though an acknowledgment of these principles is fundamental to the assurance of human rights.

Kung advocated a universal document that would set forth concrete human responsibilities associated with human rights. It would state that all people share an obligation to: