The Religious Roots of the American Concept of Human Rights

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the primary source of the modern concept of human rights – the United States Declaration of Independence, a document directly related to the “Jefferson’s Bible” quilted by the author of the Declaration T. Jefferson. The author emphasizes that the United States of America were perceived by Jefferson as New Israel, the idea traditionally supported by the dominant US ideology, which determines the nature of foreign policy and the interpretation of international law. Tracing historical dynamics of Jeffersonian ideas, the author briefly analyses the current state of human rights concept in international law in its constant political time-serving changes. The author concludes that the concept of human rights does not have its own ontology, and in modern conditions becomes the basis of the idea of the West exceptionalism in relation to the rest of the world. The article notes that the idea upheld by the West concerning the primacy of human rights over the principle of State sovereignty leads to the collapse of the entire system of international relations and international law and means permanent war.