The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word are advocates for promoting human dignity in all forms. In Peru, for instance, the Sisters have been involved in Human Rights activities helping victims from a civil war launched by the Maoist terrorists, Shining Path, in the 1980s and 1990s. Human rights activists accuse the Peruvian military of committing widespread human rights abuses during the crackdown, including the jailing of thousands of innocent Peruvians.

The Congregation is also involved in lobbying for strict legislation to prevent the international trafficking of women and children as slaves.

Commitment to Justice and Peace

A demonstration in Trujillo, Peru The dignity of the human person is rooted in his or her creation in the image and likeness of God. It is in Christ, “the image of the invisible God,” (Col 1:15) that man has been imbued with the characteristics that set him apart from other species and require of him a set of behaviors that reflects God’s love and compassion. “Every human being is a person, namely, endowed with intelligence and free will and therefore has rights and duties” (Pacem in Terris).

Inherent in who we are as persons created in the image of God is the natural right to exist, to be free, to respect others and be respected, the right to our good name, to the freedom to know the truth of our existence; and, the right, within “the limits of the moral order and the common good[,]to freedom of speech and publication, and to freedom to pursue whatever profession that he may choose.” (Pacem in Terris, 9). By extension, then, it is clear that the human person has the right to be accurately informed about public events. (Id.)

As is noted in Pacem in Terris, the Encyclical of Pope John XXIII on Establishing Universal Peace In Truth, Justice, Charity, And Liberty (1963), the human person has the “natural right to share in the benefits of culture, and hence to receive a good general education, and a technical or professional training consistent with the degree of educational development in the person’s own country. Furthermore, a system must be devised for affording gifted members of society the opportunity of engaging in more advanced studies, with a view to occupying, as far as possible, positions of responsibility in society in keeping with their natural talent and acquired skill.” (Pacem in Terris, 9).

Human rights are grounded in truth—the truth about humans —and they serve to allow us to realize ourselves as persons through participation in basic good. This truth of the rights and freedom of the person, one and inseparable, is to be recognized before society and the state, unrestrained by geographical location or cultural experience. “But such an order—universal, absolute and immutable in its principles—finds its source in the true, personal and transcendent God. He is the first truth, the sovereign good, and as such the deepest source from which human society, if it is to be properly constituted, creative, and worthy of man’s dignity, draws its genuine vitality.” (Pacem in Terris, 26).

Link to Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html