Sunday, July 20, 2008

Do your think that human rights are universal???

The answer is no. The very first reason is that the interpretation of human rights is different in every countries.

Human rights viewed by westerns are different from those viewed by Asians. Also, in some other countries, human rights are not even granted. An example is in Afghanistan. Even today, women today are denied the vote and the right to drive cars in several Arab states. Also, women are not given the right to leave home except when accompanied by a brother or husband and forbidding them all access to public education. These are basic human rights everyone should be entitled to. Therefore, human rights are not universal.

Even in US, which is supposed to be liberal, Florida's government, after frying several prisoners in a faulty electric chair, has only reluctantly turned to other methods of execution to conform to the U.S. Constitution's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment." Yet when America's Western allies tell it that the U.S. system of capital punishment is barbaric, local politicians and courts reply that it is their way and no one else's business. This shows that even within the same country, human rights are defined differently, let alone universal.

Cultural differences also differently defined human rights in different countries. In Asia, people have a different set of values are are more conservative, making their idea of human rights different from their western counterparts.

References:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20010101faessay4253/thomas-m-franck/are-human-rights-universal.html

http://www.planetpapers.com/Assets/4142.php

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