Universal Human Rights Remain As Elusive As Ever..

At the end of the Second World War, some of the great and the good, scholars and lawyers from around the world debated and argued into existence a document that became the universal declaration on human rights. Their intent was to ensure that the horrors of the previous decades could not be repeated and so they sat and developed a model of an ideal for mankind’s treatment of man. This document is a bill of rights for the human race, universal political rights, civil rights, social and economic rights with a worldwide jurisdiction. As Eleanor Roosevelt described it: A Magna Carta for mankind.

Universalism, the idea that human rights belong to everyone everywhere is the ideal that hugely influences human rights globally, it gives them meaning, application and it is the key to their moral, political and legal authority. In theory the universal declaration on human rights encompasses all of man and women kind, but are human rights really universal? Can they ever be universal? On one level the answer is obviously no. In real terms we are nowhere near the actuality of a single set of rights applied in every state across this planet of ours. One could argue that the gap between a universal aspiration and everyday practice is greater than ever in some areas of the world.

It takes little examination of the world to answer the question are human rights really universal? They are universal in way - they are universally broken. However, if we take a step back from micro examinations of those states who don’t observe human rights, and instead examine these rights in the round, one can take a closer look at the definition of human rights within a western context and the imposition of our ideals on other cultures. Within the context of our understood definitions of human rights universalism seeps through. Religions. Political creeds. Ideals of the common good. However human beings are not one homogeneous group. Culturally we differ greatly. What is good for the goose is not good for the gander in many respects.

While one might consider universal human rights to be something to strive for, the imposition of a western moral and ethical code of behaviour ensures that this will never actually happen, as how one defines things such as equality, freedom, torture, individual privacy or fairness is never going to be universal in design or application. And quite frankly the way the west is behaving these days, how could we set an example for anyone??

Human rights can never be universal, not really. Two steps backward right now….