Are Human Rights Western? : A Contribution to the Dialogue of Civilizations

Contents: Introduction. I. The Historical Perspective: 1. The historical argument. 2. The moral argument. 3. The cultural argument. 4. The argument by natural law. 5. The argument by law. 6. The argument by negative rights. II. The Secular Perspective: 7. The secular argument. 8. The argument via individualism. 9. The egalitarian argument. III. The Economic Perspective: 10. The capitalist argument. 11. The liberal argument. 12. The argument of democratic capitalism. IV. Rational and Philosophical Perspectives: 13. The universalist argument. 14. The argument via rationality. 15. The philosophical argument. 16. The argument from ethical relativism. V. The Perspective of Modernity: 17. The modernity argument. 18. The habitative argument. 19. The argument by design. 20. The package-deal argument. VI. The Religious Perspective: 21. The religious argument. 22. The homo sapiens argument. 23. The deontological argument. 24. The Christian argument. 25. The argument by human suffering. VII. The Colonial Perspective: 26. The colonial argument. 27. The imperialist argument. 28. The racist argument. 29. The parochial argument. VIII. The Unilateral Perspective: 30. The rhetorical argument. 31. The anthropological argument. 32. The legal argument. 33. The exclusive argument. IX. The Institutional Perspective: 34. The international argument. 35. The elitist argument. 36. The argument through the United Nations. Bibliography. Index.

"Human rights as an issue occupies centre stage in contemporary public debate. Part of the debate on human rights is about the origins and significance of the notion itself. This book examines the proposition, often taken for granted, that the concept of human rights is western.

It points out that the wisdom of drafting a statement of rights for the entire world on the basis of values of the societies of Western Europe and America, was questioned even at the time of framing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In the decades since it came into being, the declaration has come under increased criticism at various times from states in Asia and Africa. The charge has been repeatedly made by policy-makers and scholars that prevailing ideas of human rights are of western origin and not necessarily of relevance to societies in the rest of the world.

The book is divided into nine parts, which examine the arguments from a range of perspectives including the historical, secular, economic, philosophical and religious. Learned, yet accessible in its approach, it goes on to examine a question of increasing contemporary significance-whether the claim regarding compensation for historical wrongs, inflicted by colonial and other powers, should be allowed to evolve into a human right.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students of human rights, international law and organizations, as well as activists and NGOs, in addition to an informed lay audience." (jacket)