Abstract
I want to suggest, at the outset, that we must approach all claims of universality with caution and trepidation. There can be little doubt that visions of universality and predestination have been intertwined throughout modern history, and have been deployed as the linchpin for advancing narrow, sectarian, and exclusionary ideas and practices. At the purely theoretical level, therefore, we are chastised to look not once, but twice, and again, at universalizing creeds, messages, ideas, and phenomena. This is not to suggest that universality is always wrong-headed, or devious, but it is rather to assume that universality is not a natural phenomenon. In other words, universality is always constructed by an interest for a specific purpose, with a definite intent.
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References
Henry J. Steiner, “Ideals and Counter-Ideals in the Struggle Over Autonomy Regimes for Minorities,” 66 Notre Dame Law Review (1991) 1539, 1548.
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im and Francis M. Deng, “Chapter One, Introduction,” in Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im and Francis M. Deng, (eds.), Human Rights in Africa: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution (1990) 9.
Ibid., 10–11. What follows is a list of several of the questions the editors ask: “Is this [cross-cultural approach to creating a universal corpus] a fanciful ideal or an achievable objective? Are we being romantic and are we unnecessarily complicating the process of universalizing the cause of human rights, or are we presenting a cultural challenge for all members of the human family and their respective cultures that can help shape the lofty ideals of universal human rights? And could such worldwide involvement in itself lead to a realization of the universality of human dignity, which is the cornerstone of international human rights? Or would it be more practical to assume that some cultures are just not blessed with these human ideals, and that the sooner they recognize this and try to adjust and live up to the challenge presented by the pioneering leadership of those more endowed with these lofty values, the better for their own good and for the good of humanity?”
Richard D. Schwartz, “Human Rights in an Evolving Culture,” in Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im and Francis M. Deng (eds.), op. cit., note 2, 368–382.
Laura Myers, “Clinton Talk at University Prods China on Freedom,” Buffalo News (29 June 1998) A1.
Charles Babington, “Improve Rights Record, Clinton Tells Turkey,” Washington Post (15 November 1999) A21.
Nathaniel Berman, “Beyond Colonialism and Nationalism? Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia, and a Peaceful Change,” 65 Nordic Journal of International Law (1996) 421, 478.
See Henry J. Steiner, “Do Human Rights Require a Particular Form of Democracy,” in Eugene Cotran and Abdel Omar Sherif (eds.), Democracy, the Rule of Law and Islam, The Hague: Kluwer Law International (1999) 193.
Ibid., 200. Steiner, for example, does not dispute that the human rights text requires a political democracy. He argues that it in fact does impose just such a model. But he correctly points out that the model envisaged is not “detailed and complete.” The “essential elements” of a democratic government that the human rights instruments impose do not constitute a complete blueprint but rather “leave a great deal open for invention, for political variation, for progressive development of the very notion of democracy.”
Ibid., 200–201.
Mary Ann Glendon, A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Rights, New York: Random House (2001).
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Mutua, M. (2004). The Complexity of Universalism in Human Rights. In: Sajó, A. (eds) Human Rights with Modesty: The Problem of Universalism. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6172-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6172-7_3
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