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Can Ideas about Rights be Genuinely Universal, Rather than a Form of Cultural Imperialism?
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Can Ideas about Rights be Genuinely Universal, Rather than a Form of Cultural Imperialism? Rights discourse has played a predominant ideological role in the western liberal-democratic tradition. From the Greeks through to the social contract theorists and the more contemporary advocates, the positing of individual rights has been regarded as necessary in the protection of fundamental freedoms and liberties. The prevalence of rights discourse is particularly apparent in the modern era where universal and inalienable rights – especially in the form of human rights, are enshrined in international law and feature prominently in culture media and societal consciousness. It is the this prominence that has necessitated an ardent critique of foundations of rights discourse; in particular, theorists have generated claims that ‘although the prevailing consensus about the goodness of rights is widespread,’ it is none the less ‘ thin and brittle.’ Today the idea of rights has developed into a modern political discourse, in the sense that most things are now discussed in terms of rights it is therefore necessary to query whether human rights be genuinely universal, rather than a form of cultural imperialism. It is also necessary to look at whether rights are applied universally and not merely as western values imposed on the rest of the world. The acceptance of universally binding standards of human rights, as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is essential in today’s shrinking world, as more and more countries collaborate on things. Respect for fundamental human rights should not remain an ideal to be achieved but a requisite for every human society. Whether or not they can be genuinely universal or merely a form of cultural imperialism is yet to be seen. Rights have become necessary in postulating arguments as to how things should and ought to be, and also in allowing one to know and understand what their rights are and what their duties are to others. Theorists over time have done this in many ways. Social Contracts theories of Hobbes, Rousseau and Rawls in some ways found it necessary to argue that humans exist independently of society and on that basis, sought to determine those rights that are universally held by ‘man’ as natural fact.
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