Human Rights
Name
Institution
Human Rights
To understand why human rights are not universal it is crucial to understand their origin and how they came to existence. Human rights have evolved considering before someone could only get access to the rights only if they are affiliated to a particular group, either a family, clan, religion, community, state, among others. Most of the rights observed in those groups were from the holy books known as the golden rule, which stated do unto others what you would have them do to you. The saying was derived from the Bible, Koran, Babylonian code of Hammurabi, and the Hindus Vedas.
The evolution continued in the 20th century when several documents stating individual rights were put together to come up with the human rights document. The documents stating individual rights were US constitution and Bill Of Rights of 1791, French Declaration on peoples’ rights and Citizen of 1789, Magna Carta of 1215, and the English Bill of Rights of 1689 (Sustainability, 2019). Due to the ancient code of living that included slavery, despising women and children, and members of certain groups, the human right document that was formed did not match some aspects such as the inclusion of women in policymaking and leadership. People of different color were left out in significant decisions as well as their rights were not protected. For example, black people were only supposed to be slaves to serve the white masters. Also, members of certain religious, political, social, and economic groups were left out in consideration of the human rights document. As the document became famous all over the world, the people who were considered the minority expressed their opinions about the biasness in the report and wanted the bodies responsible for drafting the human rights document to recognize them and give them equal treatment as the others. To help prevent those problems the International Labor Organization (ILO) was established to fight for those oppressed in their works places and to prohibit the slave trade. The movement also ensured that the workers were protected their rights respected and accorded healthy and safety. The problem with the minority groups made nations to come together to discuss the welfare of those groups. The countries wanted to ensure there are international peace and cooperation among nations to protect the minority groups that were left out in the original human rights document.
After the second world war, it was clear there was a need for a body to oversee the issues related to human rights. The decision happened after the Germans killed six million Jews, Sinti, Romani, homosexuals, and persons with disabilities during the war (Flowers, n.d.). When the trial of those wars was held, the countries defeated were punished for war crimes, crimes against peace, and humanity. Therefore there was the need to establish a body that will promote international peace and prevent conflict among nations. The organization formed was United Nations to ensure in all the countries the body is present; no one is denied the food, shelter, freedom, among other essential rights people need. United Nations had powers even to sue governments that rejected the citizens’ fundamental liberties such as freedom of speech, religion, and freedom from want and fear. In 1945 the United Nations charter was drafted with the help of nations that were aligned to the body (Impakter, 2019).
After the formation of the United Nations, the next step was to make it universal so that it can intervene in the rights of every country in the world. To achieve the objective a Commission on Human Rights was mandated with the role of coming up with a document explaining what rights and freedoms meant and how they can be achieved. In 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted and pushed forward by 56 countries who were members of the united nations (Sustainability, 2019). The purpose was to make human rights an international law that every nation in the world will adopt.
The UDHR extend its revolution all over the world, and more countries signed up with the united nation to support the human rights course. As a result of the influence, the united nation now has over 185 nations making human rights international law, although not binding in all the countries.
Issues have risen about the universality of the human rights represented by the united nations since they are deemed to have originated from the west. Most of the other nations say that most of the policies advocated by the united nations serve the interest of the western countries. To critically evaluate the validity of the claims it will be essential to understand the shortcomings associated with the united nations and the human rights basis.
First, human rights were created from the need of western nations to express their values, norms, and beliefs. The debate revolves around why human rights could not be formed as a result of harnessing ideas of all the nations in the world (Shaheed & Richter, 2019). The claim raises questions as to the universality of the human rights advocated by the united nation since they represent the interest of the western countries. Therefore the same human rights cannot be enjoyed by the other cultures available in different nations since they are not the exact representation of their cultures because they originated from European countries.
Secondly, human rights were not created because they wanted to represent the rights and freedom people should have. Instead, the rights were created in response to the actions of the western countries during the second world war (Shaheed & Richter, 2019). Therefore they are not the accurate representation of any moral principles that should be present in the world. The rights were formed as a result of the diplomatic solution the countries wanted as a form of negotiation to prevent further wars like the one experienced during the second world war.
Some people in some nations still have no access to human rights despite the claims that the rights are universal. The countries are frequented with wars up to date, and despite the united nations protecting the rights of people, they have not been able to stop the wars in those nations. Despite the numerous peacekeeping mission the united nations have taken to maintain peace, no desirable results can be attributed to their efforts (Templeton, 1998). So despite other countries having peace, others lack the same, meaning the rights of the people are violated. So human rights are not universal due to the shortcoming in such areas.
To ensure that every person has the right, they deserve peace has to be maintained. The united nation keeps the peace, and one of its shortcomings is arms control and disarmament (Templeton, 1998). The disruption or lack of peace is caused by the arms that are in those nations. One of the mandates of the united nations is to ensure weapons are regulated and disarmament of illegal firearm to ensure the resident of the specific nation can enjoy their right in peace. The united nations being able to maintain arms in particular countries and not being ready in other means that human rights are not enjoyed universally.
Despite the claims that human rights are not universal, there are policies that the united nations have put in place that show they are universal. For example, the 56 countries that were associated with the passing of human rights, they were collected from different parts of the world. There were Asian, African, and Latin American countries involved (Shaheed & Richter, 2019). So the morals, norms, and beliefs used were acceptable according to those nations that represented the different parts of the world. Therefore it is true to say that the human right to some degree is universal.
Human rights can also be not just in favor of western countries only. In 1963, during the general assembly, the nations that wanted the addressing of human rights were spread in the world. Most of the states were not the western nations, they were from Africa and Asia and parts of America (Shaheed & Richter, 2019). From that, it is clear the representation shows that the human rights advocated for by the united nations were universal since they were represented in every continent.
Due to the internationalization of human rights, the actions of some superior countries were cut short. Among those actions was colonization, after the human rights were made international laws, the superior countries needed to stop decolonization and give those states their freedom (Templeton, 1998). Therefore the human rights can be considered universal since, despite their origin being western nations, they succeed in bringing freedom to the countries that were being colonized mainly in Africa.
Human rights can also be said to be universal due to the different affirmations done all over the world. These affirmations are guarantee that human rights are in those countries, and they are supported. Among the reaffirmations made is African Charter on Human and People Rights (1981), the Arab Charter on Human Rights (1994), Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990), The Lawasia Statement of Basic Principles of Human Rights (1980) and The American Convention of Human Rights (1969) (Ramacharan, 1998). All these affirmations are in different continents in the world, all advocating for human rights, and therefore they make human rights universal.
To defend that human rights are universal culture plays a crucial role. Most of the rights that were stated were consistent with the cultural beliefs of many communities in different countries (Ramacharan, 1998). Culture is what directs us on what to do; that is what is right and what is wrong. Being that the right was derived from cultural diversity, then it means that the ethnic, religious, and linguistics aspects of the cultures were taken into consideration. Therefore the rights made consistent with the culture of most nations are universal.
From the evaluation of both cases, why human rights are not universal, and why they are universal, the following aspect stands out. First, the creation of human rights did not involve all the nations that are now members of the united nations. Therefore they are not an accurate representation of the norms of the diverse countries and societies. Consequently, human rights cannot be termed as universal. There are also claims that the nation associated with moving forward with the international rights were diverse and represented the whole world. These claims cannot refute the claims the human rights are not universal since the representation was little, and therefore most of the cultures were not represented.
References
Flowers, N. (n.d.). A short history of human rights. Retrieved from https://hrlibrary.umn.edu/edumat/hreduseries/hereandnow/Part-1/short-history.htm
Impakter. (2019, August 9). The universal validity of human rights. Retrieved from https://impakter.com/the-universal-validity-of-human-rights/
Ramcharan, B. G. (1998). How universal are human rights?. Internationale Politik Und Gesellschaft, 4(98), 423-438.
Shaheed, A., & Richter, R. P. (2019, January 16). Is “Human rights” a western concept? Retrieved from https://theglobalobservatory.org/2018/10/are-human-rights-a-western-concept/
Sustainability. (2019). A brief history of human rights. Retrieved from https://www.activesustainability.com/sustainable-development/brief-history-human-rights/
Templeton, M. (1998). The achievements and shortcomings of the United Nations. Past Imperfect, Future Uncertain, 15-32. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-26336-3_2
- (2018). Vienna declaration and programme of action, 1993. International Human Rights Law Documents, 403-427. doi:10.1017/9781316677117.050