Human Rights as the Rights of the Poor: the perspective from Liberation Theology

Abstract Liberation Theology has played an important role in the development of the human rights movement in Latin America. This paper gives an outline of its basic perspective on human rights and refers to its historical basis. The Latin American Catholic liberation?theological perspective is described as one important voice in the emergence of a new global ethic centred on human rights. It is profoundly connected with the defence of the rights of the poor to a better life and of indigenous peoples in the Americas who have been profoundly hurt by several centuries of colonisation