Are there any universal human rights?
1. Introduction Human rights discourse since its very early stages has generated several debates; one of those, perhaps the most preponderant, is about their universality. Scholars all over the world have argued for different points of view according to their perceptions of human rights and to how they interpret the authority of culture. It is possible to distinguish between two main radical positions that Jack Donnelly calls “radical relativism” and “radical universalism”.1 The latter, as shown by the word itself, includes all those scholars who look at human rights and, more specifically, at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) as universal. For this reason they mostly believe that it is possible, hence desirable, to extend the principles listed in that document to every single country. On the contrary, the former position embraces the most sceptical scholars who hold several claims against the Universality of the Declaration. Foremost they refer to the different
cultural
identities worldwide, presenting them as insurmountable obstacles to the successful global spread of the same standard of human rights. However, the debate on the universality of human rights cannot be limited to these two extreme views; the actual confrontation, indeed, is much more complex. Several categorisations have been defined in an attempt to put the different major opinions into order. This specific contribution will focus on the positions of each of the four “schools of thought” presented by Marie-Bénédicte Dembour.2 She identifies four main categories with dissimilar perceptions of human rights: ‘“natural scholars” […] as given; “deliberative scholars” as agreed upon; “protest scholars” as fought for; and “discourse scholars” as talked about.’3 Although the lines among them are porous, thus some academics cannot be easily allocate in one or another school, it is possible to recognize connotative features for each of the mentioned group, especially if the focus is on particular themes, such as the foundation, the universality or the development of human rights. First and foremost, it is important to highlight what “universal” means, then it is useful to stress how and when the debate on the universality rose, with particular regard to human rights field. Secondly, an overview of the four schools of thought, with a special focus on the different Jack Donnelly, ‘Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights’ (1984) 6 Human Rights Quarterly 400-19. Marie-Bénédicte Dembour, ‘What are Human Rights? Four Schools of Thought’ (2010) 32 Human Rights Quarterly 1-20. 3 Ibid 1. 1
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