Soteria International invites you to the 8th edition of the

SPIRITUAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE 2015:

9TH DECEMBER 2015, hours 6.00 pm - 9.00 pm

Venue CONCORDIA, Address: Nordre Fasanvej 230, 2200 Copenhagen

Human Rights and Spiritual Practice

The seminar offers a practical approach to support human rights, at individual and societal level. The participants are invited to an open dialogue.

1.      What are human rights?

2.      Freedom of religion, conscience and belief – a hot potato in EU today!

3.      The term “sect” and marginalisation of unfamiliar spiritual practice

4.      The free conscience as spiritual practice – to stand up for your heart!

5.      What can you do to support human rights in your society?

During the event, we will share knowledge on how practically to deal with violations of spiritual human rights, including how to build an inner spiritual attitude facing such violations.

What are human rights?

There are a plethora of discussions about Human Rights nowadays, yet apparently the manner in which this topic is usually covered is somewhat limited and insufficient.

Human rights, or in other words, the inherent rights of all human beings – is first of all a moral issue – a matter of right and wrong. Morality has always been an issue within human thought – mankind’s attempt to understand his own value, the purpose of his life, to understand the nature of his relations with others, with society, with the universe and even what is beyond that. Morality is humanities attempt to formulate guiding principles, discerning right action from wrong action.

Upon examining the common approach to human rights today, manifested by its most prominent representative – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – we can’t help but feel that its view, noble as it is, is far too narrow to cover the great span of the Moral Question – we shall relate to this issue below.

The subject of morality includes in it criteria the discernment of right action from wrong action, and by doing that it is focusing its attention on the individual – to guide him/her in his/her life. By doing so, morality also recognizes certain inherent rights and responsibilities of the individual. Thus, Morality becomes a very important guide for each of us, a compass. In contrast, the current language of Human Rights, speaks only of the rights of each individual, and it places the obligation of fulfilling them on the state.

Human Rights never claimed to be a guide for morality, but to protect the individual rights from any oppression, including the state’s. Human Rights do not necessarily expect the State to fulfill these rights, but do expect it not to hinder human beings from enjoying their rights. Human Rights do not offer guidance in people’s life, but they do state certain matters which are entitled to be demanded from the state. Human Rights (HR) hinder the oppression of the individual within the borders of the state.

We invite you to participate to this open dialogue of finding ways to integrate spiritual principles in our decisions for the future.