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Human rights in India Essay
World understanding of what human rights are
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The American Anthropological Association in its 1947 “statement on human rights” situated its advice on the principle of the social context of the individual and the significance of including the sociocultural values of his/her society into consideration when drafting an inclusive non Western-Euro/American-centric “UN declaration of human rights”. It holds that each group of people would perceive its culture as the most benevolent and thus the inherent goodness of their values should be sufficient in regulating their affairs and protecting their rights. It disregards the historical fact that the “white man burden” was not limited to the Europeans and North Americans, but many nations have engaged in imperial expansionism around the world before …show more content…
1948. On Science and Human Rights. American Anthropologist 50: 352-5.
Engle, Karen. 2001. From Skepticism to Embrace: Human Rights and the American Anthropological
Association. Human Rights Quarterly 23: 536-560.
Farmer, Paul, and Nicole Gastineau. 2002. Rethinking Health and Human Rights: Time for a Paradigm Shift.
Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. 30(4): 655-66
Harris, Sam. 2011. The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. Simon and Schuster.
Merry, Sally Engle. 2003. Human Rights Law and the Demonization of Culture (And Anthropology Along the
Way). Polar: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 26(1): 55-77.
Riles, Annelise. 2006. Anthropology, Human Rights, and Legal Knowledge: Culture in the Iron Cage.
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Shelton, Dinah. 2013. The Oxford Handbook of International Human Rights Law. OUP Oxford.
Steward, Julian. 1948. Comments on the Statement on Human Rights. American Anthropologist 50: 351-2.
Turner, Terence. 1997. Human Rights, Human Difference: Anthropology’s Contribution to an Emancipatory
Cultural Politics. Journal of Anthropological Research 53(3):
US NGO Physicians for Human Rights Manual. Washington D.C.: US NGO Physicians for Human Rights, 2001. Print.
Schattuck, John. “Overview of Human Right Practices, 1995,” Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. March 1996: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
In this essay I will research and provide a timeline of developments to human rights, i will explain the underlying principles of the human rights approach and the importance of adopting human rights to care. After the Second World War ended in the mid 1940’s there became a serious realisation to the importance of human rights. This realisation got the United Nations to establish the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This Declaration shows the first ever international agreement on the primary principles of human rights. There is a total of thirty basic human rights within the Universal Declaration and these rights apply to every single person in the world. An example of one of the rights everyone has is ‘the
Declaration of Human Rights: Dignity and Justice for All of Us. Accessed on October 29,
Jones-Brown, Delores. "The Right to Life? Policing, Race, and Criminal Injustice." Human Rights. Spring 2009: 6. SIRS Issues Researcher.
Kinney, Eleanor D. "Realization of the International Human Right to Health in an Economically Integrated North America." Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 37.4 (2009): 807-818. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
Mahoney, Marvellous Richness of Diversity or Invidious Cultural Relativism? 12 Human Rights Law Journal 1, 5( 1998)
Nowicka, Wanda. "Sexual and Reproductive Rights and the Human Rights Agenda: Controversial and Contested." Reproductive Health Matters, 19.38 (2011): 119.
From the beginnings with the Cyprus Cylinder to the establishment of the formal International Bill of Rights, the concept (and acceptance) of human rights have come a long way. In the long and varied history of the process, it has not only been ‘Western’ individuals that have advocated for a formal adoption of human rights. Gandhi, a young lawyer from India argued for and insisted upon the validation of rights for all human beings. Even so, criticisms surrounding the Bill of Rights have centred around the idea that human rights are a western concept, and one that has been imposed upon other nations. Summed up neatly, ‘a group of nations is seeking to redefine the content of the term human rights against the will of the Western states…this group sees the current definition as part of the ideological patrimony of Western civilization and argue that the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration reflect Western values and not their own.’ (Cerna 1994:740) To critically analyze this idea effectively, it is important to step back and determine the true intentions and the realities of the process used in creating the Bill of Rights.
This essay has argued throughout that human rights are not universal. The first paragraph in this essay focused on the extent to which the idea and norms of universal human rights has flourished. It then critiqued human rights from a cultural perspective arguing that human rights are not universal due to their being conflict between the rights of the individuals and the rights of groups. This essay finally argued that the lack of adherence to these so called universal human rights have dealt a huge blow to the notion of their being universal human rights.
OHCHR. (2012). United Nations Human Rights Council . Retrieved April 25, 2013, from United Nations Human Rights: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/AboutCouncil.aspx
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Charney, E., (1999) Cultural Interpretation and Universal Human Rights: A Response to Daniel A. Bell. Political Theory. 27 (6), 84. [online] Available from: [Accessed 28 February 2011]
Human Rights are rights every person has simply because they are human. Human rights are universal and un-discriminative. Human Rights have encountered recognition through the United Declaration of Human Rights which was espoused by the United nations general assembly in 1948. Universal human rights have also successfully gained recognition after the creation and establishment of the United Nations.. Both The United Nations and the universal declaration of Human Rights establishments rely on groups or things (governing bodies) such as the media, the international security council and state reporting to help promote and enforce Human Rights internationally. Although these groups are implemented in order to help promote and enforce human rights
The role that globalization plays in spreading and promoting human rights and democracy is a subject that is capable spurring great debate. Human rights are to be seen as the standards that gives any human walking the earth regardless of any differences equal privileges. The United Nations goes a step further and defines human rights as,