The UN was founded immediately after the horrors of the Second World War because of the Nazi-regime and in response to the economic and social difficulties after the Depression. This need of security by law was explained by a particular tradition in Europe where in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries dominated despotic governments. Political and also economic securities were asked by the poorest people through organizations such as trade unions and socialism. These are the reasons why human rights are included in the world legislative code. They concern four levels - individuals, cultural communities and associations, nation-states, and the world system regulated by the United Nations.
As we can see, human rights come from the West, yet the history of international relations shows us that the world has always been divided. It is claimed today that the world contains two very different parts at every level of study which diplomatically seem to be imperialism and anti-imperialism, historically colonialism and anti-colonialism, geographically North and South, economically rich and poor nations, politically capitalist and socialist, the West and the Third World, although many countries of the Third World have mixed economies. That is why it is important to analyze whether the universal human rights concept, which has its roots in Western thought, can be applicable to all human beings.
[...] Mao said concept of man lacks content, it lacks the specificity of male and female, adult and child, Chinese and foreign, revolutionary and counter-revolutionary.” that is why China has had difficulties to work in the UN Commission on Human Rights and the majority of the multilateral treaties on human rights hadn't been ratified by China. China sees the campaign for human rights as a mean to protest against imperialism, hegemony, colonialism and racialism, speaking about rights of nations to independence, races to equal treatment, and of states to development, but not of individuals for rights. [...]
[...] Smith - Foot Rosemary, Right Beyond Borders ; The Global Community and the Struggle over Human Rights in China. Oxford University press - Forsythe, David P. Human Rights in International Relations. Cambridge University Press chapters 1 and 2 - Freeman Michael; "Human Rights: Asia and the West" in Human Rights and International Relations in the Asia Pacific, edited by James T.H. Tang. London, Pinter - Frost Mervyn. "Migrants, Civil Society and Sovereign States : Investigating and Ethical Hierarchy" Political Studies 46, no (1998) : 871-85 - Gibney, Matthew J. [...]
[...] Yet, is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed by the United Nations in 1948 futile proclamation? We also must be attentive that singularity and irreducibility of the plurality of cultures in the world does not bring us to the belief in the moral superiority of some people. This would be an ethnocentrism, in opposition to tolerance based on skepticism; culture egalitarianism would follow cultural relativism against imperialism according to some Asian governments. Asians accuse the West to have no right to give moral lecture to Asia, but the West can't confront to Asian moral standards, for the same is reason why it can't impose western standards on Asia. [...]
[...] Michael Freeman says besides concept of human rights, therefore, is legally international, philosophically universal and historically western.” In fact, the human rights doctrine has its roots in western political thought and the international law included human rights concern of all human beings. The ideological origin knew a process of extension until the practice all around the world where international treaties are ratified. Some people claim human rights as an expression of the domination from West over the rest of the world as Asia, but they oppose the modernity of West to the traditions of Asia and deny something very important. [...]
[...] Universality of human rights Even if the UN human rights doctrine is born with the western tradition as we have seen, it pretends to concern universal problems and all human beings. Yet it said because the doctrine of human rights is western, they are not universal. We have to distinguish between the concept which is a general idea and conceptions which are specifications either the concept is western and therefore inapplicable to Asia, or the concept is universal and can be adapted to different countries with different cultures. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
