Every December 10 marks the United Nations Day for the commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Over 60 decades ago, the international community declared that a common vision with shared ideas and peaceful & respectful coexistence could triumph over hatred, destruction, and brutality.
According to the UNFPA human rights are universal, interrelated, inalienable, interdependent, and indivisible.
Human rights are universal because they are inherent in every human regardless of their race, gender, culture, ethnic background, religion, or social background.
Inalienable because they can never be taken away and interdependent and indivisible because all rights – civil, social, cultural, political, and economic – are equal and none can be fully enjoyed without the rest.
Human rights apply equally to all, are upheld by the rule of law, and enforced through legitimate claims based on international standards.
Over time, an extensively disputed debate has developed regarding the universality of human rights.
Theoretically, human rights are well expressed, however, they are not entirely universally-applied today.
Decades after world countries adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, crimes against humanity and deprivation of human rights remains rampant.
One common challenge is the cultural relativism concept. What one country considers as common standards in human rights might not be appropriate in another culture.
Other arguments include the premise that economic growth ought to precede human rights.
For example, in developing States that experience cultural division, social order is interrupted by human rights and hinder development.
Additionally, in Asian countries, strong economic development is attributed to authoritative rule (source).
However, according to the most significant obstacle to the universality of human rights is the principle that it’s a contemporary form of imperialism (source).
True concern for human rights emerges occasionally its agenda is shallow rhetoric used to disguise the promotion of Western States’ interests.
For instance, the invasion of Iraq by the US and her allies highlights how human rights are used as a neo-imperialism and white supremacy tool (source).
For them to be universal, it is vital for human rights to be compatible with cultural differences.
Globalization and digitization have been crucial in the generation of multiculturalization of human rights (source).
Concisely, it is important that human rights continue gaining legitimacy through the incorporation of cross-cultural views.
Existing theories on human rights fail to appropriately explain the variety of rights available today.
Hence, human rights ought to be based on both philosophical and cultural origins while remaining responsive to common human injustices.
Immigration policies in the US undermine human rights and something should be done to ensure that more humane policies are adopted and enforced (source).
All cultures experience common histories of injustices and if the basis of human rights is evaluated on these terms, they can be universally applied.
The international community – particularly the West –plays a significant part in guaranteeing that human rights are universally accepted and respected.
The culmination of the Cold War detached obstructions to actual international human rights policies, which led to democratizations across developing countries (source).
Western nations have played more positive roles in holding governments to account and monitor human rights abuses through UN agencies, embassies, and NGOs.
Ultimately, the international community plays a significant role in providing legitimacy to human rights campaigns and holding governments to account.
Another key player in the push for human rights universality globally is civil society, which signifies the authentic channel for human rights. Human rights are best observed and valued when they hail from the population and not from foreign imposition or isolated leaders.
Civil society plays an influential role in supporting human rights and accountability. It represents the most effective and legitimate route for the realization of the universality of human rights.
Concisely, human rights conceptions are generally based on collective human injustice histories, which builds a strong case regarding the value of universal human rights.
Undermining human rights, their principles, and theories damages their values and creates chances for injustices. The civil society, the international community, governments, citizens, and stakeholders play a fundamental role in the promotion and protection of human rights.
If they can all maintain a critical, positive role and domestically push for the legitimization of human rights by international law, human rights can become universally accepted and respected.
We realize that a large number difficulties stay along the way of full acknowledgment of human rights. I have sketched out probably the most overwhelming among them, including those that retain our energy and consideration, as need matters at the OHCHR.
Yet, let me underscore that the sixty years that slipped by since the reception of the Universal Declaration have additionally demonstrated the route forward.
We are currently much clearer in the information that the quest for human rights requires the individual and aggregate responsibility of all. That responsibility should defeat partisanship and barely characterized interests, requiring creative mind, energy, tact, fortitude, assurance and difficult work.
I am certain that States, worldwide associations and civil society can together keep on saddling such characteristics and put them to ideal use in the administration of human rights.
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