| ID | 170432 |
| Title Proper | Human Rights Are Neither Universal Nor Natural |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Müllerson, Rein ; Rein Müllerson |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Differences between various theories of human rights have so far been mainly those of within the same Western worldview, which has either ignored other viewpoints or treated them with condescension. To avoid abstract theorizing on the nature of human rights without studying concrete societies, which had previously existed or exist today, without the analysis of why some of them had become slave-owning societies while others had evolved into liberal-democracies, it is necessary to take historical and comparative approaches. Historically the emergence of human rights is related to the advent of centralized States in the Medieval Europe where those belonging to the class of nobles needed tools that would have justified their claims against the king becoming all-powerful. Both, human rights expressing the good that exists in humans, and human wrongs, reflecting the evil existing in the world and in us, are both equally human, though not necessarily humane. Human rights are social constructs that are called upon to respond to human needs and help remedy human wrongs. Some human rights may, indeed, become universal (namely, become universal, not to be such as God given or deriving from something called human nature), others may be universalisable, while the domain of application of certain rights may remain relatively restricted. While human beings, in essence (i.e. not superficially, as to the colour of their skin or slant of their eyes), are very much the same, societies differ hugely. Societal and cultural differences acquired during the tens of thousands of years long journey of the Homo Sapiens from an African village to all over the world cannot be overcome within decades or even centuries, if ever. There is no global village in the horizon and the world has not become flat. |
| `In' analytical Note | Chinese Journal of International Law Vol. 17, No.4;DEc 2018: p.925–942 |
| Journal Source | Chinese Journal of International Law Vol: 17 No 4 |
| Key Words | Human Rights |