Philosophies
Several theoretical approaches have been advanced to explain how and why human rights become part of social expectations. One of the oldest Western philosophies on human rights is that they are a product of a natural law, stemming from different philosophical or religious grounds. Other theories hold that human rights codify moral behavior which is a human social product developed by a process of biological and social evolution (associated with Hume). Human rights are also described as a sociological pattern of rule setting (as in the sociological theory of law and the work of Weber). These approaches include the notion that individuals in a society accept rules from legitimate authority in exchange for security and economic advantage (as in Rawls) – a social contract.
Contemporary history
The preamble to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that rights are inalienable: “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” However, there is still much dispute over which “rights” are truly natural rights and which are not, and the concept of natural or inalienable rights is still controversial to some.
A libertarian view of inalienable rights is laid out in Morris and Linda Tannehill’s The Market for Liberty, which claims that a man has a right to ownership over his life and therefore also his property, because he has invested time (i.e. part of his life) in it and thereby made it an extension of his life. However, if he initiates force against and to the detriment of another man, he alienates himself from the right to that part of his life which is required to pay his debt: “Rights are not inalienable, but only the possessor of a right can alienate himself from that right – no one else can take a man’s rights from him.”
Human Rights
Human rights refer to the “basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.” Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.
By the Article 1 of the United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit and brotherhood.
Natural rights
In pre-modern scientific understandings of nature, human nature is understood with reference to final and formal causes. Such understandings imply the existence of a divine interest in human nature, and/or the existence of an ideal, “idea,” or “form” of a human which exists independently of individual humans.
Natural law theories base human rights on a “natural” moral, religious or even biological order that is independent of transitory human laws or traditions. Socrates and his philosophic heirs, Plato and Aristotle, posited the existence of natural justice or natural right. Of these, Aristotle is often said to be the father of natural law, although evidence for this is due largely to the interpretations of his work by Thomas Aquinas.
The term “human rights” has replaced the term “natural rights” in popularity, because the rights are less and less frequently seen as requiring natural law for their existence.
Human Nature
Human nature is the concept that there are a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting that all ‘normal’ human beings have in common.
The Laws of Human Nature
1. Nobody cares unless it makes them look bad
It simply means that most people will not pay close attention to comments, news articles or conversations that do not (either directly or indirectly) make them appear in a negative light.
2. Blame someone else
It states that in a situation which could be deemed as one person’s fault, they will invariably try to blame somebody else. Very few people will immediately take the blame for their actions without first attempting to adhere to this ‘Law’.
3. Humor is at somebody Else’s expense
This is one of the more complicated laws, but has been genuinely proven. It means that something is only funny or humorous if it means, insults or otherwise humiliates, somebody else.
4. “Make to Break, Give to Take”
This is the most difficult to understand of the four supposed ‘laws’. It is generally accepted that this law refers to “give and get” meaning that people are only willing to give something away when they think or intend to get something else in return. It may also refer to the fact that most governments spend more money on military research than other ventures. Regardless, it is very hard for most people to understand but, when logical and knowledgeable thought is applied, it can make perfect sense.
Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice
Synopsis
Jack Donnelly elaborates a theory of human rights, addresses arguments of cultural relativism, and explores the efficacy of bilateral and multilateral international action. Entirely new chapters address prominent post-Cold War issues including humanitarian intervention, democracy and human rights, “Asian values,” group rights, and discrimination against sexual minorities.
Debate
We are all at a table together, deciding which rules to adopt, free from any vague constraints, half-remembered myths, anonymous patriarchal texts and murky concepts of nature. If I propose something you do not like, tell me why it is not practical, or harms somebody, or is counter to some other useful rule; but don’t tell me it offends the universe.
Upon examining the difference between the perspectives of the United Nations and Donnelly, both concepts are pointing out a particular subject. The two laws are just trying to convey the law that covers all the man on earth. The concept of the Law in the UDHR, it only summarizes the human race. The law governed the entire nation with no predicament about the cultural differences among the races. The law stated in the United Nations’ address simplifies the meaning in a simple state that everybody will understand it, not only by mind but also by heart.
Meanwhile, on Donnelly’s point of view, he only made a broader sense of the stated original law. It covers the different races in the symmetric way that a person can see. The synopsis on his study explains that there are now full understandings in different people bearing different culture. This law does not exemplify anyone, in the sense that the people, no matter what country he belongs or if he is a black or white American or an Asian, deserves equal rights and treatment from the people that surrounds them.
In the view concerning the key topics: the human right, human nature and natural right, it is obviously that they are different in terms and the way they are discussed by different professionals and famous scholars and philosophies. But if an ordinary person just look at it a way that he can easily understand it, he might just say “what’s the problem between those three? They were just different in the way that they are interpreted, but still they are all concern about the humans”.
In other words, their responsibilities about the human law ideas are a matter of how the other human treat the other. There are playing in a conscience if the person hurts the other. Then the other might planted a hidden anger that might grow through years. In the study’s own perspective, the human law is the main body that summarizes human rights. The human right is formed because of its cell called the human nature. And the human nature is the foundation of what is the person now, if not, it is the basis in making a body of law.
Sources:
Human Rights [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right [Accessed 03 Aug 2009].
Natural Right [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_right [Accessed 03 Aug 2009].
Human Nature [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature [Accessed 03 Aug 2009].
Laws of Human Nature [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature#Influential_views_of_human_nature [Accessed 03 Aug 2009].
Donnelly, J., (2002). Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice. Cornell University Press [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right [Accessed 03 Aug 2009].
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