Mozambican adults’ perspectives on human rights: Comparison with French and Venezuelan adults

Abstract

The present study assessed conceptualisations of human rights in Mozambique, a developing country with a history of Portuguese colonisation. Participants were 102 Mozambicans adults (female = 48%; mean age = 29.25 years; SD = 9.04 years). They responded to four kinds of information from realistic human rights scenarios: (i) the level of social protection citizens in the country enjoyed; (ii) the level of freedom of expression they enjoyed; (iii) the objective level of equality between citizens in the country; and (iv) the extent to which private life was respected. The Mozambican participants endorsed the indivisibility model of human rights, considering that only regimes that guarantee the full experience of all four kinds of basic rights can be considered as fully respectful of human rights. This perspective is similar of the one sustained by French and Venezuelan participants in a previous study. These findings suggest that the widespread “belle policy” (economic and social rights should take precedence over political and civil rights) defended by many sub-Saharan African policymakers must be challenged in favour of policies that promote the simultaneous fulfilment of all the citizens’ human rights.