In analyzing the contemporary legal and political discourse we can conclude that one of the central elements is the concept of human rights. These rights have become a central element in the main current discussions. However, when we carry out a more detailed analysis, we conclude that there is not a sufficiently dense concept to justify all the proposals anchored in them. On the contrary, they have made such a vague element that it is possible to sustain any pretense in them and, consequently, to deprive them of any content. In this context, the present work starts from the hypothesis of research that the ethics exposed by Thomas Aquinas can provide an adequate way to justify these rights. Thus, the central objective of the current research is to analyze the extent to which Thomist ethics can support the concept of human rights. The research is a bibliographical one, turning to the works of Thomas Aquinas and his main interpreters – those that, in some way, allow to discuss the research problem, like Finnis and Hervada, among others. The dissertation was organized from three axes, which form three chapters: the presentation of the conceptual problem of human rights; the analysis of Thomist ethics from its distinctive concepts and related to these rights; finally, the relation between Thomist ethics and the foundation of human rights.
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