W10. Human_rights / Lee Se Hyun

Summary

Human rights are the basic right to live as a person. This is an absolute domain. Applicable regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, or location and guaranteed by international law. Human rights have been modified and established over a long period of time. From ancient times to the post-World War II international human rights treaties, various changes and considerations continued. Since the 1966 Human Rights Treaty, the concept of human rights has been established and human rights are guaranteed at the international level through the UN, an international organization. Also, various efforts are made to ensure human rights in the community. Human rights organizations are established in continental units such as Africa, America, Asia, and Europe, to strive for the self-reliance of the vulnerable classes and countries. Human beings have studied human rights for a long time. Thus, the theory of human rights exists, and there are various views on human rights.

Interesting point

There are two perspectives on human rights: universal and relativistic. The universalist view argues that all human beings are given equal rights regardless of geographical location, race, gender, age or culture. On the contrary, the relativist view argues that human rights are not universal and threaten survival in conflict with some cultures. A typical example is female genital amputation. In some countries and cultures, it is legal, but the international community is considered to infringe on women's rights and is outlawed. This argues that universalism is cultural, economic and political imperialism. The reason is that the concept of human rights adopted by the great powers is based on the political liberal outlook that has not been adopted elsewhere. Their confrontation is interesting. In absolute terms, the argument for a relativist perspective cannot be viewed as correct, given the differences in views based on different positions. But their argument is not wrong. From another point of view, it is partly true that universalism is cultural, economic and political imperialism. It is interesting that we are living in this dilemma.

Question

I support the universalist view of human rights. What arguments should be made to persuade people from a relativistic point of view from a universal point of view?