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For an Enlargement of Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Joseph Yacoub
Joseph Yacoub*
Affiliation:
Catholic University, Lyon

Abstract

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If we investigate the concept of the universality of human rights, we realize that it is limited and invalid, and that it fails because it is too utopian and unreal. It is not a question of denying that there is a generic human essence, or criticizing human rights from a moral standpoint, but of showing that ‘human rights’ do not really have a universal basis. They are a part of history, and as such they vary according to societies and develop differently across space, time and moment. The values that underlie human rights are relative and evolving. They take distinctive forms according to cultures and social context, and are likely to be modified according to societies and periods. In other words, in this area there is no universal societal code that would be approved and recognized everywhere. Therefore the statement of rights cannot fail to be marked by their context. Each civilization has its codes and keywords influenced by its Weltanschauung. This paper attempts to place human rights texts in their historical and geographical context, and thereby demonstrate that there is nothing constant about them. They are dependent on cultures and collective imaginaries, national representations and social determinants, and rely heavily on their instrumentalization by states. For this reason we need to rethink the relationship between the particular and the universal in order to widen their humanistic base.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , May 2005 , pp. 79 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2005

References

Notes

1. For an approach to human rights related to cultural diversity see the texts collected and presented by Henri Pallard and Stamatios Tzitzis (1997), Droits fondamentaux et spécificités culturelles, Paris: L’Harmattan.

2. See Lorenzo Scillitani (2003), ‘Diversité des cultures et universalité des droits de l’homme entre philosophie et anthropologie’, in Enjeux et perspectives des droits de l’homme (texts assembled and presented by Jérôme Ferrand and Hugues Petit), vol. III of L’Odyssée des droits de l’homme. Paris: L’Harmattan, pp. 173-82.

3. See the excellent article by Raimundo Panikkar, which was published in this very journal, ‘Is the Idea of Human Rights a Western Concept?’, Diogenes, no. 120, 1982, pp. 75-102.

4. See Joseph Yacoub (1998), Réécrire la Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme, Paris: Desclée de Brouwer; (2000) Au-delà des minorités. Une alternative à la prolifération des Etats, Paris: Editions de l’Atelier, pp. 27-48; (2004) ‘A l’épreuve des civilisations et des cultures. Repenser les droits de l’homme’, in J. Ferrand and H. Petit, Enjeux et perspectives des droits de l’homme, Paris: L’Harmattan, pp. 183-200.

5. For an example of the working of an ‘eastern’ society it is illuminating to read the article by Romila Thapar (1966) about Hinduism and Buddhism: ‘Tradition hindoue et tradition bouddhique’, in Revue internationale des sciences sociales, Paris, quarterly journal published by UNESCO, 18(1): 34-44.

6. See Hubert Reeves, Joël de Rosnay, Yves Coppens and Dominique Simonnet (1996), La plus belle histoire du monde. Les secrets de nos origines, Paris: Seuil, France Loisirs, p. 117.

7. See Henri R. Pallard, ‘L’universalisation des droits fondamentaux et l’occidentalisation de l’universalité’, in Enjeux et perspectives des droits de l’homme, op. cit., pp. 163-72.

8. See Agir pour les droits de l’homme au XXIe siècle, unpublished texts collected by Federico Mayor with Roger-Pol Droit, Paris: Editions UNESCO, 1998. See also Lettres aux générations futures, unpublished texts collected by Federico Mayor with Roger-Pol Droit, Paris: Editions UNESCO, Cultures de paix, 1999.

9. See Jean-Eric Callon (1998), Les Projets constitutionnels de la Résistance, Paris: Documentation Française; ‘Les droits de l’homme dans les projets constitutionnels de la Résistance’, in Les Droits de l’homme et le suffrage universel, texts assembled by Gérard Chianea and Jean-Luc Chabot, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2000, pp. 203-10.

10. To access these UNESCO contributions see the publication L’Enseignement des droits de l’homme, Paris: UNESCO, vol. IV, 1985, special issue.

11. See Albert Verdoodt (1964), Naissance et signification de la Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme, Brussels: Larcier, preface by Rene Cassin; John P. Humphrey (1984), Human Rights and the United Nations: A Great Adventure, New York: Dobbs Ferry Transnational Publishers; Glen Johnson and Janusz Symonides (1991), La Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme 1948-1988, Paris: UNESCO and L’Harmattan.

12. See the following articles in Esprit: ‘Faut-il refaire la Déclaration de droits?’ and ‘Projet d’une Déclaration des droits des personnes et des collectivités’: pp. 118-27, December 1944; ‘Faut-il réviser la Déclaration?’ and ‘Projet modifié’: pp. 581-90, March 1945; ‘Faut-il réviser la Déclaration des droits?’: p. 696-780, April 1945; ‘Faut-il réviser la Déclaration des droits?’: pp. 850-6, May 1945. See also Emmanuel Mounier (1963), Oeuvres, recueils posthumes, correspondance, vol. IV, Paris: Seuil, pp. 96-104.

13. See Robert Bosc, ‘Les Nations unies à Paris’, Etudes, décembre 1948, no. 259: pp. 321-41.

14. See his article ‘Les Déclarations des droits de l’homme (1789-1949)’, June 1950, pp. 308-18, and July-August, pp. 66-82.

15. The word dates from the 16th century during the Reformation and refe s to those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity (the concept of a god made up of three persons: the Father, the Son and the Spirit) and preferred to stress the oneness of God (Editor’s note).

16. The whole of this survey was published in English in 1949 with the title Comments and Interpretations, introduced by Jacques Maritain. It was republished in 1973 by UNESCO under the title Human Rights: Comments and Interpretations, Westpoint, CT: Greenwood Press.

17. Le Contrat naturel, Paris: Flammarion, Champs, 1992, p. 84.

18. This proposal repeats but amends (in italics) article 1 of the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights.

19. The section in roman type repeats article 3 of the declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 14 December 1960.

20. This proposal slightly amends (in italics) the first section of article 18 of the international pact relating to civil and political rights (1966), which itself somewhat altered article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) on freedom of religion and conviction stipulating that ‘This right implies freedom to change one’s religion or conviction’.