Su FY (2019)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2019
Publisher: Brill
Edited Volumes: Identity, Belonging and Human Rights: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective
City/Town: Leiden
Pages Range: 125-137
ISBN: 9781848884571
DOI: 10.1163/9781848884571_013
Are human rights universal and are they applicable in different cultures? These sorts of questions have given rise to different arguments that criticise the universality of human rights. At the same time, the particularity of a culture becomes the best excuse to exclude human rights norms. On the other hand, despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reaching a high consensus among countries in 1948, the mechanism for international protection of human rights and monitoring systems of human rights still cannot be immediately understood and taken on board, and sometimes it is still regarded as a sort of cultural imperialism. If these underlying values of human rights that come from a common consensus cannot even be given a voice and interpreted in different cultures, then it is arguable how the universality of human rights can be justified. The aim of this chapter1 is to yield a general reflection to the claim that human rights come from the West. Through an intercultural approach, the tension between cultural diversity and universal human rights is deconstructed. This chapter is divided into three parts: Firstly, the debate between culture and universal human rights is demonstrated. Secondly, the dispute of Asian Values is rethought. Thirdly, the debate on traditional values at the United Nations is demonstrated. To sum up, culture should not be an obstacle to implement human rights; rather an intercultural perspective should be taken to produce a common understanding. As for how the intercultural approach is implemented, this will be dealt with in another article.
APA:
Su, F.-Y. (2019). Debating the Universality of Human Rights from an Intercultural Perspective. In Nasia Hadjigeorgiou (Eds.), Identity, Belonging and Human Rights: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective. (pp. 125-137). Leiden: Brill.
MLA:
Su, Fang-Ying. "Debating the Universality of Human Rights from an Intercultural Perspective." Identity, Belonging and Human Rights: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective. Ed. Nasia Hadjigeorgiou, Leiden: Brill, 2019. 125-137.
BibTeX: Download