ABSTRACT
The aim of the present chapter is to analyze the impact of Christian teaching, and more specifically Catholic doctrine, upon contemporary human rights discourse. Thus, there are certain assumptions and limits in the scope of our undertaking. Historically, it was Christian doctrine, irrespective of denomination, that had the greatest influence on the emergence and evolution of human rights. The Jewish, Greek, and Roman heritage of Christianity helped to cultivate the cardinal ideas of dignity, equality, liberty and democracy that ground the modern human rights paradigm. Christianity also helped to shape public and private, penal and procedural rights (Witte and Alexander 2010, Wolterstorff 2012).
