Universality of human rights

Universality of human rights

Introduction

In this research paper we are going to briefly analyze the topic of universality of human rights a topic which is expressed in vertical, geographical and historical manner. Universality is one of the essential characteristics of human rights. The idea of human rights is strictly related to democracy and justice. It is strictly the conception on which every individual has legitimate claims upon the society for a list of defined benefits and freedoms. Human rights are generally defined as the set of fundamental rights inherent to human nature. From the point of view of their substantive content, they refer to the Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and, more recently called solidarity in particular, the right to development, the right to a healthy environment, the right to peace. Three guiding principles are generally attached to human rights: the idea of indivisibility, effectiveness and universality. The instrument that best expresses the principle of universality is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1948.

Discussion

The term "universal human rights" refers to the universality of human rights in the sense of a validity claim: There the claim is made that human rights should apply to all people everywhere.

The "validity for all men" has two distinct, interrelated meanings:

Every human being can rely on the same human rights to protect its basic interests.

Every human being should recognize the validity of the same human rights.

Universality as a moral claim

The first, subjective importance of universality can be practically realized only when the second, inter-subjective meaning is fulfilled, namely the call for the universal recognition of human rights. Because when someone invokes human rights, and in the world around them are not recognized, so that does not lead to the goal.

The second meaning of the universal validity claim contains more than the mere recognition beyond a moral demand: Everyone is obliged to respect the human rights of its entire people. Since one cannot expect that all people adhere to this moral principle, it needs sound legal instruments to ensure the universal recognition of human rights and to make it effective in practice.

Universality as a positive legal fact

The claim to universal validity has thus creating positive legal arrangements to follow, which have the aim to institutionalize the protection of human rights of all people in an effective manner. This is the step of the generality as the moral validity claims towards universality as a positive legal fact.

All states are joining the UN received the moral obligation to take this step and human rights in their national legal systems to give full effect. In other words, all States are under the moral appeal, to ratify international human rights treaties and are therefore legally obliged to enforce the human rights standards in their territory.

The basic human rights such as the prohibition on torture or the prohibition of slavery are now part of customary international law and are mandatory for ...