7. CONCLUSION

76. The various rights of individuals and communities mutually reinforce a culture of freedom in which human beings can contribute to the common good. In fact, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms in many ways that human beings are perfected through individual initiative, private associations and political engagement for the sake of the common good. The Declaration, for example, recognizes the right to intellectual property,⁶⁸ whereby the invention, distribution and use of knowledge are not merely or solely achievements of the State. As John Paul II observed, "man's principal resource is man himself".⁶⁹ The Universal Declaration wisely recognizes that an essential part of the freedom of association ⁷⁰—which includes freedom to associate in labor unions ⁷¹—is the right whereby individuals cannot be compelled by the State to join an association.⁷² All these rights, which individuals and private associations enjoy, are vital for the development of "civil society". They constitute a safeguard against totalitarianism.

77. The practical recognition of the rights of the institution of the family in the framework of the development of human rights cannot ignore the original words, the end and the spirit of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration recognizes in the natural institution of marriage a mutual self-giving in love between a man and a woman—which constitutes a stable union open to the procreation and education of their offspring—as the principal foundation of the family. We call upon all peoples and nations to give careful attention to the norms of the Universal Declaration and not to curtail their beneficial and salutary protection.

78. "The future of humanity passes through the family".⁷³ For this reason, it is in the treatment that peoples give to the family through recognition of its fundamental, irreplaceable value or, on the contrary, through the various forms of neglect, hostility and harassment that hinder its mission, that the future of humanity will pass.