(A special monographic volume edited by Francesco Comina, Severino Saccardi e Simone Siliani)
A special monographic volume commemorates the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed on 10th December 1948 at the United Nations General Assembly. It is a unique volume also because its release year corresponds with the 60th anniversary of “Testimonianze” established in 1958 by Ernesto Balducci. Balducci knew how to seize challenges and how to give a voice to determining themes such as Human Rights, battles against inequalities, the Culture of Peace and Dialogue through the pages of the review. As a matter of fact “Testimonianze” has been committed to promoting deep cultural meditations for years. In the latter part of the volume the articles are dedicated to three highly regarded protagonists of the review, who passed away recently (Ludovico Grassi, Danilo Zolo, Attilio Monasta). In 1948 a huge step forward was taken: as underlined by the contributions the rights for every single human being were recognized. Nonetheless, the results that emerge, by traveling through a 70 years’ journey, make it clear that there are lights and shadows that were already recognizable after the proclamation of the key principles: the values of the declaration, their actual and practical political outcome are not to be found everywhere and at every time. Moreover in our changing world rights to the ones identified and approved in 1948 (at that time they flared up philosophical and anthropological discussions and sometimes even abstentions) should be added. These additional rights are tightly bound to social, economic and environmental emergencies and our duty seem to be the maintenance on our planet earth of the “right to have rights” (as Hannah Arendt asserted), of the right to survive and of the right to life. In a nutshell a duty towards the future generation.
