The justification of human rights and the question of its cross-cultural validity : universal theories and particular perspectives

Abstract

Efforts to justify Human Rights through an all-encompassing theory of cross-cultural validity have engrossed Western theorists. An exaggerated belief that all people think in a similar fashion and, thus, will affirm human rights as a project commonly agreed between liberal and non-liberal societies, has resulted in the absence of cultural differentiation. On one hand the East is called to surrender itself to a form of Western moral infiltration, and, on the other hand, the East raises arguments of state sovereignty and non-interference. A West-East confrontation on the ideological level of justification is sterile, for it perpetuates unnecessary philosophical tensions and unresolved problems related to Human Rights implementation. Instead of being trapped in a vain search for a liberal philosophical justification inspired by the West, it would be more desirable to pursue a cultural emancipation by locating the humanistic core of human rights in each and every society.