Advantages And Disadvantages Of Universality Of Human Rights

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Do you think that human rights should be seen as a universal or culturally-relative phenomenon? Human rights are the basic freedoms, protection and restrictions that belong to all human beings regardless of gender, nationality, religion, age or race. The question on whether human rights should be the same in all over the world or not has been raised ever since the United Nations established the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDCR) in 1948[2]. The debate between the human rights universalists and relativists is still going on today and the clear conclusion can still be quite far away, but we are going to analyze them and decide whether which is the best way of looking at human rights.
There are two ways that people see human rights; universal …show more content…

Universal human rights can be applied to anyone in anywhere[3]. Everyone would be treated equally no matter where they are, thus this form of human rights can help providing a fair treatment for prisoners of wars and migrants[2]. Universalism can be very helpful in this modern time because people are constantly moving from one place to another due to the advance in technology and transportation[3]. Universality of human rights might be a convenient way of creating international peace, but it is still greatly challenged by cultural …show more content…

Because we are living in the age of globalization and technological advancement, cultural differences will eventually lose its significance as time goes by[3]. The other disadvantage is that not everyone would agree to every traditions that they are born in. In some culture, people are able to kill, keep a slave or restrict some of the basic human rights such as the right to democracy, public assembly, privacy and freedom of speech. Some people in the culture would have to be forced to accept the tradition even if they disagree with it but have to just because they were born in that particular society[6]. Even though relativism can satisfy the majority of cultures around the world, its imperfections can still create quite a lot of conflicts.
After looking at the advantages and the disadvantages of both mindsets, I think universalism is a better way to maintain a peaceful world for all because globalization is, and will be, continuing to occur as our world develops. Every cultures will have more ideas and values going out and coming in as international communication is becoming easier. People from every cultures will be moving around everywhere and no society would only contain their own members, but some immigrants as well. By having human

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