The Business of Life with Dr King

The Human Contract: Rights, Responsibilities, and the Path to Global Peace with Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden)

• Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King • Season 2025 • Episode 33

Share episode

Send us a text

What if the solution to our divided world has been within our grasp all along? Lady Maria Dolores Ehrling, founder of the Human Contract and recipient of the 2023 Ambassador for World Peace Award, presents a revolutionary framework bridging our inherent rights with our evolving responsibilities.

The Human Contract offers a refreshingly balanced approach to human relations. Unlike traditional human rights declarations that focus on government obligations, this grassroots movement emphasizes personal accountability alongside individual freedoms. Built upon seven key promises—ranging from bodily autonomy to collective unity—the framework acknowledges we're born with rights but must mature into our responsibilities. "You have the right to your life," explains Maria Delores Ehrling, "to live with whomever, wherever, and however you like, but not at the cost of any other."

Drawing from decades of experience in human resources and her profound encounters with mortality through funeral work, Maria Delores Ehrling  articulates a vision where peace begins internally rather than being imposed externally. She redefines peace beyond the absence of conflict to encompass presence, inner calm, and the courage to stand against injustice. This philosophy powered measurable productivity improvements in her change management work, demonstrating the tangible benefits of helping people recognize their inner dignity—or as she beautifully phrases it, helping everyone "have the crown on their head."

As we transition from nation-centric thinking toward what Dolores calls a "global local world," the Human Contract provides a thin but sturdy framework for navigating this evolution with respect for diverse beliefs and cultural values. The movement aims to unite game-changers across disciplines—from educators and healthcare providers to artists and technologists—in collaborative efforts spanning the next century. Ready to explore your role in this hopeful vision? Connect with Maria Delores Ehrling on social media and remember her parting wisdom: "Your ideas can change the world."

Music, lyrics, guitar and singing by Dr Ariel Rosita King

Teach me to live one day at a time
with courage love and a sense of pride.
Giving me the ability to love and accept myself
so I can go and give it to someone else.
Teach me to live one day at a time.....


The Business of Life
Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King
Original Song, "Teach Me to Live one Day At A Time"
written, guitar and vocals by Dr. Ariel Rosita King

Dr King Solutions (USA Office)
1629 K St, NW #300,
Washington, DC 20006, USA,
+1-202-827-9762
DrKingSolutons@gmail.com
DrKingSolutions.com


Dr Ariel R. King:

Hello and welcome to the Business of Life. Today we have a very special guest, Lady Maria Dolores, who is the founder of the Human Contract. Welcome.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

Thank you. Thank you, Dr King. I'm so thankful and honored to be here with you.

Dr Ariel R. King:

Thank you. Can you tell us more about yourself and about this Human Contract?

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

this human contract. Yes, yes, you know, as the founder of the human contract. The human contract is about our human rights and our human responsibilities. So in 2023, I received the Ambassador for World Peace Award in a ceremony in Stockholm, and the human contract is about our human rights and our human responsibilities. It's based on United Nations Declaration of the Universal Human Rights, but the human rights is written for us as citizens, towards the government right. It's really actually from the social contract that is written from the 1600 and 1700, from Locke and Rousseau. So the human contract is really how we deepen governance, that you have rights. You are born with your birth rights and we mature in our responsibilities.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

So these seven promises that we make to ourselves and that we make to the world is based on our human rights, our birth rights, but how we mature. So the seven promises is the first three is personal. It's about the body. You have the right to your body and you have a responsibility for your body and to respect others' bodies. So that's the first promise that we make to ourselves and we make to the world. And then it's about our emotions that we have the right to all our emotions, to our hate, our anger, our frustration but we also have a responsibility and to mature with our emotions and then our thoughts, that you have the right to your thoughts but a responsibility to trying to broaden perspectives.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

So the first three is personal and then the coming three is interpersonal. It's about power that you have the right to your personal power and it ties to united nations declaration of uh of movement, that we have the freedom of movement but also also responsibility how we move and how we act. And then the fifth principle and the fifth promise we make is about speech the freedom of speech and the freedom of creativity, but also responsibility and to mature with our communication and to listen to each other. So the freedom of speech. And then the sixth out of the seven is life. You have the right to your life. You have the right to live with whomever, wherever and however you like, but not at the cost of any other.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

And then it ties together with the last promise, the last principle about our collective, our unity as a humanity, and that we, united, have rights as a species. We have a right as a humanity, but we also have a responsibility. In Swedish we call this civil courage, which is about moral courage. You know, dr King, if you and I would go on the metro here in Stockholm and if we would see someone starting to fight or we see injustice, it's all our responsibility to step up and say, hey, what's going on, can I help you with something? And so that's the human contract and it's the solution, and it's a movement in the service of humanity the coming hundred years, because I believe that, united, we can make a change and we will make a change. I believe we already have the solutions that we need, but it needs to be in collaboration and to acknowledge each other and to support each other for a better world, a more healthy world, with our personal health, with our relationships, a more peaceful mind and, as a species, to come together.

Dr Ariel R. King:

I really love this social contract that you have. It's wonderful. I really love this social contract that you have. It's wonderful.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

May I ask is it written and where do you help to teach it, to promote it, to permeate it. So is just stating that we have rights and responsibilities. It's funny that you ask I've been working with this for a couple of decades now. My background is with human resources and leadership and I've also helped my friend in her funeral business, so I've seen a lot of death, I've casketed over 3000 people, I have attended more than 1300 funerals and I know, I acknowledge that the need for all of us to believe whatever we want to believe, but the thin framework is just agreement on that. We have rights and responsibility and how you want to use this if you want to have it in the dialogue with your pastor, with your rabbi, with your leader, in leadership training, as a politician or in any kind of development, personal development, with your psychologist. This movement is for all of us. So the movement is starting right now and the human contract is. We have a website, thehumancontractworld, and also for people to connect with me.

Dr Ariel R. King:

Thank you, that's really good to know. I'm very curious. I really love the fact that when you talk about human contract, you're talking about people and our rights, but also our responsibilities towards each other, towards ourselves, towards what we do, what we say, how we treat others, and then our collective responsibilities for humanity. What's really interesting to me is you also talk about the fact that you show respect and deference and time and energy to see and recognize death. So can you tell us more about that?

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

About death. Yeah, I grew up here in Sweden. I see myself as just, I'm a vessel, I'm a product of my society. Growing up in in sweden and having a mother, um, who was very, not so swedish, and she really encouraged me and she said you can do anything you want if you want it, bad enough. And so with the experience and helping my friend in her funeral business, it's really been to deepen the perspective of the human contract.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

I've always believed, ever since I grew up, and the values from my grandmother about dignity, the values from my grandmother about dignity, and that is really my core value. And with mutual respect, and to see beyond you know all the labels that we put on ourselves and that we put on each other you know he's gay or she's that age or you know that category and to really see beyond the labels that we put on ourselves and one another and just with mutual dignity, you know, for you, dr King, and for me, to have the crown on our head and to own, you know, your inner queen and your inner king, and with grace and with your inner power, but also with acknowledging and encouraging others to have their crown on their head. And that's referring to the fourth principle about power, with your personal power, and to step up in your power, but not at the expense of others, and not to make yourself small and say, oh no, I can't do that, and who am I to? So small and say, oh no, I can't do that and who am I to? But rather, you take your time, you take your space and you claim it.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

Um, ever since I was uh young I was 11 years old and I was sitting on the kitchen counter and I was talking to my father about past lives and future lives, and so about questions about lives has always intrigued me, and that's really in 2015,. I wrote the book A State of Grace, human Rights and Human Obligations, and that's the sprout of the human contract, for whatever you want to believe in and whatever you believe in past lives or in future lives, it's your right and your freedom, but also with the mutual respect of us as a species, here and now, just to unite around that we have rights and responsibilities and that we are born with these rights and that we mature in our responsibilities. So I think that answers your question your question.

Dr Ariel R. King:

Can this framework be adopted for young people within schools or young people within clubs, for example, and can this framework start from a very early age, rather than as adults, when we're already not as receptive as we could be as children?

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

Yes, that's why we created the Human Contract Foundation, because this is a work starting now and working in the service of humanity, the coming hundred years of humanity, the coming hundred years, and it's to support the, the challenges that we are facing today. And, of course, it's both. It's to develop trainings both for actually for all the game changers that's really and with the game changers, I, that's really. And with the game changers, I'm thinking of, like you said, the teachers of the world, but it's also the people who are working with health, the practitioners of the world, but it's also with the tech geeks and the innovators and also the artists and the creators of the world, the game changers movies and films and to create for companies or any kind of organization, also for, eventually, maybe also for governments. But unlike United Nations, that is a top-down, pointing downwards to unite nations and to have a top-down with policies and more enforcements. This is for us to inspire each other and to unite and to work as a grassroots movement up. I love that. I love that.

Dr Ariel R. King:

Have you already used this as a grassroots movement within Sweden and, if so, can you tell us any stories about how you've done that?

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

Yeah, like I said, it's starting now and this is also why I received the Ambassador for World Peace Award in 2023, because I talk about that peace in the world starts from within. I talk about that peace in the world starts from within. When I was working with human resources, we did a change management program where we were working with values and how my values and how I perceive myself and my perfect day, and how that, how that would be implemented, and to envision my perfect day as a um um working with um, like the electricians or or the operators or or the, or the guys and the girls in finance or any kind of position for them to envision their perfect day. And in that, the perfect day, the change start starts from within. So when we did this program, we had production record after production record after production record.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

So I believe and I I know that measurable, game-changing tools that when we really are anchored in ourselves and we have our own vision, our own feeling of what it feels like in the future, when I have the support, that I need the right preconditions and how we can support each other to create those right preconditions. And what is that? Because it can be money, but it's not always money. It's usually when we say, if only, if only I have more money, if only I lose five pounds, if only my children, if only my spouse, then I will be happy. But it starts also from within and your own recognition and to create the right preconditions for you to say yes and to say no and the boundaries the healthy boundaries in power in your personal power, that really creates the peace within and your inner strength.

Dr Ariel R. King:

I love that. So, really, that's the pinnacle of all of this, isn't it? It's the peace that comes from being able to implement this within our lives and within our communities, and then within humanity, and peace means. What does peace mean for you?

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

peace is it's? It's that's a good question, because I've had difficulties actually with that word and when I worked with the peace organizations it seemed to be you know, peace out there, peace on gaza, you know that's peace, but it's. Peace is so, so, so much more. Peace it's to wake up happy, to have a meal in presence with yourself and in presence with others, and peace is the inner calmness it's to listen, it's to. Peace can be to when you feel triggered by something, something is happening in your life and you feel triggered then to take two more breaths and to say wait a minute. That moment, that is peace. That is peace the small things, or peace is. Also. You know the power and the powerfulness of like when we are on the bus or when we discover wrongdoings in the society or in the workplace, and to have to have the courage to look at your peers and say, hey, this is, this is not right.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

You know, let's let's unite and and and that's also peace in in a in a powerful way. But I don't believe in revolution, I believe in just to claim our rightful space and place.

Dr Ariel R. King:

I love that. So to recognize who we are, to recognize our place within the world and to recognize the need for the world to have us and for us to work within humanity and within doing that, peace is formed, peace is developed or peace is. If not developed, then peace is found, yeah, or peace finds.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

Found, yeah, or peace finds us, yeah, and also when we look at our human history and we have always had changes in our human history and technology and how our perspective has changed through our human history, and all the turbulence that we are experiencing today is just symptoms of everything that we have built up until this point, and that's why the human contract is needed to support, but just as a very, very thin framework, supporting and reminding ourselves of who we are and that we have the right to any kind of belief system.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

We have the right to any kind of political system, but, moving onwards with the technology, we have right now obviously you know you and me communicating just from different time zones and from different with all the world right now all the world right now. So we're going from a nation-centric thinking to a global, local world, and this shift needs to be embracing what people are fearing that they don't feel like their cultural, their country, their values is seen and acknowledged, and so we need to embrace the values and the perspectives that we have developed until now, but also moving onwards to a global, local world. So that's why?

Dr Ariel R. King:

What is the global I love this term global local world. Can you tell us more about that? Tell us more about the global local world?

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

yeah, I, um, I believe in a world in the future where we wake up and that, where we feel happy when we wake up and and how we can, how we connect with others across the world, people who share our values or our interests, and where we can collaborate stronger together.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

Where we have the artists of the world uniting, or we have the tech geeks all over the world uniting, or the educators or the innovators, and to inspire each other. That is today so varied in what is true and what is not true about health, and to broaden the perspective of the potential of the humanity and to work and to collaborate, strong collaborations together for human health. And with the human health I mean both physical health and also mental health, and of course, there are people who want to heal spiritually. It's kind of outside the realm of the human contract, but I acknowledge that and I acknowledge the importance for some people about that and to respect each other's view. So we're a society, a world, where we wake up and we truly feel peace and a sense of belonging together I love that.

Dr Ariel R. King:

Thank you so much. Our time is almost up. Do you have any last thoughts that you'd like to leave with our audience? And also, please, can you tell us how can they get in touch with you?

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

yeah, um, you can reach me at linkedin, at maria dolores or um, at my handle on x and on facebook and on instagram is Eva Maria Dolores. I'm from Sweden, so you can look that up, and my last words is always your ideas can change the world.

Dr Ariel R. King:

Thank you. Thank you so much for spending this time with us. It was so informative. I appreciate it. And to our audience, remember if I'm not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, then when? That's by the philosopher Hillel and I've added if not me, then who? Thank you for being with us.

Maria Delores Ehrling (Sweden):

Thank you.