How Should the Claim that Human Rights are Universal be Reconciled with the Actual Cultural Diversity in the World

Abstract

One of the classic debates within political theory has been between the idea that human rights are universal moral standards and the argument, often put forward by cultural relativists, that human rights are imposed on cultures and lack legitimacy. Within this debate, the question of whether the concept of universal human rights can be reconciled with the actual cultural diversity in the world has often arisen. This essay argues that they are compatible with each other in three ways. Firstly, the capacity of the modern state to cause human suffering and to stop human capacities to flourish is universal and human rights are therefore a necessary response to this. Secondly, human rights and culture operate on two different levels in the contemporary world, where human rights operate at the level of nation-state, and culture operates at the level of the community. Because of this, many cultural practices lie outside the domain of human rights and are instead afforded human rights protection. Lastly, human rights are only universal at the level of concepts, while having both room and need for cultural particularities in regards to interpretation and implementation of a right. Here, culture and human rights complement one another.