The Case Against Human Rights

Many conflicts are sparked by a failure to protect human rights, and the trauma that results from severe human rights violations often leads to new human rights violations. As conflict intensifies, hatred accumulates and makes restoration of peace more difficult. In order to stop this cycle of violence, states must institute policies aimed at human rights protection. Many believe that the protection of human rights "is essential to the sustainable achievement of the three agreed global priorities of peace, development and democracy." Respect for human rights has therefore become an integral part of international law and foreign policy. The specific goal of expanding such rights is to "increase safeguards for the dignity of the person."

Giving cash and loans to a government to build projects such as power plants will not help the country if government officials skim off a large share and give contracts to cronies incapable of implementing those projects. Providing experts to improve the legal infrastructure of the country will not help if local judges refuse to enforce the new laws because of corruption or tradition or incompetence. Pressuring governments to combat corruption will not help if payoffs to mob bosses, clan chiefs, or warlords are needed to maintain social order. Demanding that aid recipients use money in ways that they believe unnecessary can encourage governments to evade the conditions of the donations.

In many Islamic countries, any kind of defamation of Islam is not protected by freedom of speech. Human rights law blandly acknowledges that the right to freedom of expression may be limited by considerations of public order and morals. But a government trying to comply with the international human right to freedom of expression is given no specific guidance whatsoever. Although the modern notion of human rights emerged during the 18th century, it was on December 10, 1948, that the story began in earnest, with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN general assembly.

Article 24

Natural law theories have featured greatly in the philosophies of Thomas Aquinas, Francisco Suárez, Richard Hooker, Thomas Hobbes, Hugo Grotius, Samuel von Pufendorf, and John Locke. Of these, Aristotle is often said to be the father of natural law, although evidence for this is due largely to the interpretations of his work by Thomas Aquinas. Several theoretical approaches have been advanced to explain how and why human rights become part of social expectations. Responsibility to protect refers to a doctrine for United Nations member states to intervene to protect populations from atrocities. It has been cited as justification in the use of recent military interventions.

The UDHR, which turned 70 in 2018, continues to be the foundation of all international human rights law. Its 30 articles provide the principles and building blocks of current and future human rights conventions, treaties and other legal instruments. International human rights law reflects the same top-down mode of implementation, pursued in the same crude manner. Because it is law, it requires the consent of states, creating an illusion of symmetry and even-handedness that is missing from foreign aid. Hence the insistence, wholly absent from discussions about foreign aid, that western countries are subject to international human rights law as other countries are.

Education

One important role in exerting pressure on states is played by associations, non-governmental organisations, charities, and other civic initiative groups. This forms the subject matter of the section on activism and the role of NGOs. We shall also look at how they act to improve human rights and at some examples of successful action. Unlike the European or American Conventions, the African Charter covers social, economic and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights within the same treaty. The evolution of the idea of universal human rights drew from the foundations of notions of dignity and respect in civilisations around the world over centuries.

Article 5

Similarly the ex Soviet bloc countries and Asian countries have tended to give priority to economic, social and cultural rights, but have often failed to provide civil and political rights. Every person and all peoples are entitled to active, free and meaningful participation in, contribution to, and enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social and cultural development, through which human rights and fundamental freedoms can be realized. The truth is that human rights law has failed to accomplish its objectives. There is little evidence that human rights treaties, on the whole, have improved the wellbeing of people. The reason is that human rights were never as universal as people hoped, and the belief that they could be forced upon countries as a matter of international law was shot through with misguided assumptions from the very beginning. The human rights movement shares something in common with the hubris of development economics, which in previous decades tried to alleviate poverty by imposing top-down solutions on developing countries.

So Simple, It's Child's Play

Despite the horrifying genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and the civil war in Yugoslavia, the 1990s were the high-water mark for the idea of human rights. Human rights played an increasingly important role in the European Union and members insisted that countries hoping to join the EU to obtain economic should be required to respect human rights as well. NGOs devoted to advancing human rights also grew during this period, and many countries that emerged from under the Soviet yoke adopted western constitutional systems. We should note that the universality of human rights does not in any way threaten the rich diversity of individuals or of different cultures. Diversity requires a world where everyone is equal, and equally deserving of respect.

We do this by investigating and exposing human rights abuses wherever they happen. By galvanising our global movement, we shine a light where individuals are at risk and provide information to future generations so that the progressive fulfilment of human rights make it a reality for all. And that idea, in the wake of World War II, resulted finally in the document called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the thirty rights to which all people are entitled. We have a duty to other people, and we should protect their rights and freedoms. An illustrated guide for children that explains human rights, with each of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written in easy-to-understand language.

These basic rights are based on shared values like dignity, fairness, equality, respect and independence. Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth until death. Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein. ISHR has permanent offices in Geneva and New York, enabling us to build and leverage our distinctive expertise and networks at the UN and among key diplomats for the benefit of defenders.