The impact on the universality of human rights of the shift of power to the East

Abstract

Referring to a perception on the part of many that the UN agenda of human rights is of Western origin and is supported by Western countries deploying their intellectual capital and financial power and to the fear that the perceived economic and corresponding potential political decline of the West will have a detrimental impact on the international human rights agenda in general and the UN agenda in particular, this chapter examines whether the UN human rights agenda is still a Western agenda. It also considers what the future for the UN human rights system would be in the multi-polar world and concludes that if power is shifting to the East, it will not shift only to China but also to established democracies such as India where the values of democracy and human rights run deep. Therefore, the shift in power to the East is unlikely to have a detrimental impact on the UN human rights agenda and the universality of human rights.