The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, voted at their semi-annual meeting from April 27 to May 1, 1998 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, to adopt the following resolution. The Council of Bishops is composed of all the active and retired United Methodist bishops (about 130) from the United States, Europe, Africa and the Philippines in Asia. The Council is tasked the general oversight and promotion of the temporal and spiritual interests of The United Methodist Church whose members all over the world total about 9.5 million.

Following is the full text of the resolution of the Council of Bishops:

Fifty years ago this year, on December 10, 1948, the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Today, national governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and civil society, continue to make the Declaration "a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations" all over the world.

The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church joins the peoples of the world in the solemn commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the UDHR. United Methodists across the connection worldwide join in celebrating humanity's achievements, through this Declaration, in safeguarding the worth and dignity of peoples and the integrity and sacredness of all God's creation.

The United Methodist Church and Human Rights

United Methodists "affirm that all persons are of equal worth in the sight of God, because all are created in the image of God." Through human rights, we affirm the demand of the biblical tradition that "we live in an interdependent relationship with God and our neighbor." To love God with all our heart and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves sum up God's teachings. These teachings form the fount of the Christian understanding of human rights. As Christians, loving our God and loving our neighbor together advance the imperatives of human rights. Human rights enable us to express in concrete ways our love for one another by assuring that "each person's value is recognized, maintained, and strengthened."

The human rights instruments that are now available are a means, which, when implemented and protected, will allow persons, societies, and the international community, to fully and responsibly live in freedom and human dignity. By recognizing and respecting the human rights of peoples, Christians come to acknowledge the God-given worth and dignity of all peoples. United Methodists support human rights because they are a concrete means of assuring right relationships within communities, between peoples and among nations.

Human dignity is the well-spring of all human rights. It is in fact the sum total of all human rights. It encompasses all gifts of talent and grace, life and beauty, wisdom and discernment that are all endowed by God on every person. Dignity is inherent, indivisible, and inalienable in every person including the communities they found. This is why denying human rights to any person and to his or her communities is a desecration of God's commandments. To deny and violate human rights is to tarnish this dignity and diminish God's image in persons.

The United Nations and Human Rights

Since 1945, the United Nations has been in the forefront of developing human rights standards and legal instruments. The ecumenical community influenced, through direct participation, in the writing of the Charter of the United Nations and the UDHR, principles such as justice, equal rights of men and women, tolerance, better standards of life, freedom of religion and "living together in peace as good neighbors."

Today, the International Bill of Human Rights'the foundation of human rights laws, language, and practice'includes the UDHR, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Since 1948, many more instruments'treaties and conventions'have been opened for ratification by all countries in the world. Many of these instruments have been ratified by UN member states and have since entered into force, even as countries like the United States have yet to ratify instruments such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

While many instruments are already available for the protection of human rights, we are reminded daily that everywhere in the world "individuals and communities suffer often because essential human freedoms are not recognized, just treatment and protections are not guaranteed, and violations of the wholeness and integrity of personhood are not prevented" in many parts of the world. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is meant to address the abject poverty and hunger to which many children around the world are consigned, denying them of a healthy and productive future. Human rights of refugees and migrant workers have been developed at the UN addressing increased and flagrant practice of exclusion, xenophobia, discrimination and inhumane and degrading treatment against refugees and migrant workers.

The effort of the UN to establish a permanent International Criminal Court underscores the continued need to prosecute crimes against humanity, crimes of war and aggression, genocide and other serious violations of human rights and humanitarian laws. Also, the drafting of a declaration of the rights of indigenous peoples and the creation of a permanent forum for them within the UN continues the commendable work of this body in addressing issues of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, including religious intolerance.