Are Human Rights Fundamental to Democracy? - Richard Harries February 18, 2010

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/01/14/Richard_Harries_Does_God_Believe_in_Human_Rights

Lord Richard Harries considers human rights a necessary measure to protect minorities from "the potential tyranny of the majority." "Human beings need to be protected from one another, hence we have the rule of law," he says. "But we also need to be protected against governments."

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The movement to establish an international legal basis for human rights after World War II has been one of the great achievements of our time. But do human rights have a sound theological basis? Sometimes it seems religions give the impression that God is indifferent to them. This challenge needs to be faced in order to find a firm foundation for rights. - Gresham College

Before being the Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006, Lord Richard Harries was previously the Dean of King's College London, where he is now a Fellow and an Honorary Professor of Theology. He is an Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge and of St Anne's College, Oxford.

He also holds a number of other prestigious positions in other top British Universities. In 2006 he was made a Life Peer as Lord Harries of Pentregarth of Ceinewydd in the County of Dyfed and sits on the crossbenches.

Professor Harries has published 24 books and numerous articles, covering a wide range of interests. These include: Art and the Beauty of God (Mowbrays, 1993), Christianity and War in the Nuclear Age (Mowbrays, 1986), Is there a Gospel for the Rich? (Mowbrays, 1992), After the Evil: Christianity and Judaism after the Holocaust (OUP, 2003), C. S. Lewis: The Man and his God (Collins, 1987), and a collection of his contributions to 'Thought for the Day' on Radio 4's Today Programme to which he has been a regular contributor since 1972, In Gladness of Today (Harper Collins, 1999).