HUMAN RIGHTS

Human Rights

Human Rights

Introduction

'Islam approaches life and its problems in their totality. Being a complete and perfect code of life, it holds no brief for partial reforms or compromise solutions. It starts by making man conscious of his unique position in the universe, not as a self-sufficient being but as a part, a very important part, of Allah's creation. It is only by becoming conscious of their true relationship with Allah and His creation that men and women can function successfully in this world'. (McLagan 2003: 605-612)

'For a Muslim country, as for all complex state societies, the most pressing human rights issue is not local cultural preferences or religious-cultural authenticity; it is the protection of individuals from a state that violates human rights, regardless of its cultural-ideological facade'. (McAuliffe 2005:45-85)

Within the international debate on human rights that has evolved over the past two decades, the Islamic countries of the Middle East have occupied a position both common and specific - articulating, on the one hand, views that are shared with other third world and non-Western countries, and, on the other, defining a specific position on human rights derived from the particular religious, in this case Islamic, character of their societies and beliefs. (Mayer 2000:16-25) Thus, at the June 1993 Vienna UN Conference on Human Rights, and in the regional conferences which preceded it, Islamic states, including those of the Middle East, joined with Asian states in criticizing UN and Western policy for its double standards, its violation of sovereignty, its neglect of economic rights, its imposition of 'Western' values. (Marshall 2001:74-86) Yet if Islamic states and movements have expressed views on issues common to other developing societies - on economic rights, global equity, decolonization, nationalization and the like they have also marked out a particular position on certain questions pertaining to the field of human rights; thus at Vienna Islamic countries submitted the 'Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam', originally propounded at the 19th Conference of Islamic Foreign Ministers in August 1990. This specific, Islamic, position on the international human rights debate pertains both to the position of what constitutes a 'right', and its derivation from divine, rather than human or natural law bases, and to a number of more specific issues within the rights field. (Light 2002:4-6)

This dual relationship to the international debate has also been reflected in the international, state and non-governmental, reporting on the human rights position within the Middle East Islamic states: while many of the practices of which these states have been accused have been shared with other countries (denial of political rights across a wide spectrum), some pertain to specific aspects of the ideologies and laws of these countries, which are, at least formally, phrased in terms of Muslim law and practice. Four of the latter have been of particular prominence - the rights of women, the rights of non-believers, the rights of people deemed to be apostates, and the question of punishments. Recent examples of apparent conflict with international norms include ...