Human Rights

Human Rights

Introduction

The main purpose of this essay is to examine the concept of human rights and state whether or not can it be truly universal. The essay attempts to explore some relevant facts and figures relating to the question highlighting the concept of human rights in relation to various nations. It also determines whether the universality to human rights can be fitted in the entire world or the differences in culture, beliefs, religion and tradition deviate the concept of human rights in different places. The essay shall then attempt to enlighten the role of global civil society and as to what the non-governmental organizations like amnesty international can be called. The main argument of the essay emphasizes on the importance of the golden age of human rights as well as the end of the cold war highlighting the common consensus amongst the sovereign states. Apart from that, the degree of compatibility of human rights norms with cultural relativism is also discussed. The paper will attempt to discuss all these questions in a comprehensive manner. Furthermore, examples related to these questions will also be provided to develop argumentative points, which will then be summarized in the conclusion.

Discussion

The concept of human rights stems back to the era of Rome. In Rome, only the Roman citizens were guaranteed and were the only ones who could take part in the government, the administration of justice, the election of public officials, etc. This is can be put forward as a fact establishing a working definition of human rights. The Roman law offered a pattern of objectives in judging the human behavior from the point of view of individual rights and freedoms. This can be directed towards the modern concept of a public protector of human dignity.

Similarly, in England, battles were fought in defense of British rights to limit the power of the King. In this struggle two major documents emerged: the Petition of Right, in 1628, and the Bill of Rights of 1689. The ideas of these documents, in relation with the human rights, were then reflected in North American and French Revolutions of the eighteenth century. With the declaration of independence of America, Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and the American Bill of Rights 1789 were formed in the concept of human rights.

However, the clearer picture and perception of the concept of human rights is a phenomenon dating back to time of the French revolution in 1789. Furthermore, the event that took place during the Second World War and genocide of Holocaust can also be characterized in this regard. The current and modern concept of human rights was established in the United Nation Universal Declaration for Human Rights (UDHR) dated the 10th of December, 1948.

In order to answer the main question, which is whether human rights norm are adherent to university, it can be declared that human rights are truly universal sue to the fact that article 1 “declaration of human rights” ...