“In Spirit of Brotherhood”: the principle of fraternity between rights and duties. A reflection since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This article points to the importance of rescuing the principle of fraternity in order to add a new perspective to the debate on the universality of human rights. Drawing on the multicultural conception of human rights by Sousa Santos and on other studies about the idea of fraternity, we first analyze how fraternity was present in the discussions of the preparatory works on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and then how it is envisaged in political and religious documents on rights. We argue that the principle of fraternity, on the one side, relates to the sense of duties and responsibilities the individual has towards a community. On the other side, the openness of the principle itself allows the concept to be pushed beyond its application in an identified local community. For this reason, we conclude that the principle of fraternity is well equipped to allow for cross-cultural dialogues to occur in the international arena on the issue of human rights.