Human rights and civic responsibility

Jesuit institutions of higher learning are ideally suited for hosting a consortium of human rights practitioners and Jesuit apostolic partners from universities, the Jesuit Refugee Service, and groups in regular contact with the Social Justice and Ecology secretariat in Rome. To be better educators for justice and more effective actors countering injustice, the working groups proposed:

• A foundational document on human rights able to be adopted by all Jesuit institutions, drawing on the statements about justice, peace, and human rights in recent General Congregations of the Society of Jesus;
• A continuing and rigorous self-examination by Jesuit universities regarding their just structures and investment practices;
• An equal participation of women in governance;
• A closer linkage with human rights organizations;
• Curricular exposure for all students to human rights and peace issues, including as far as possible Catholic social teaching;
• and a distinctively Ignatian and academic promotion of a culture of peace in which rights might flourish.