Every human being born on this earth is equal. Therefore, all have the basic right to live following certain standard behaviors and principles. For example, one person cannot be imprisoned without any reason, killed or treated badly because he belongs to a particular race or religion. Basically, the human rights protect individuals from others who may want to hurt or harm them. In other words, human rights help individuals to live peacefully. Human rights are defined by the United Nations more than sixty years ago. At that time the United Nations was represented by many Western nations. The definition says: All human beings belonging to any country, sex, color, ethnic origin, religion or speak any language have the same basic rights (United Nations Human Rights 2016). This declaration was accepted by most of the countries around the world. Since most of the Western countries were responsible for defining these rights, many believe human rights are a Western phenomenon. But in truth, human rights are common to everyone living in the world. In brief, a person living in America and one living in a poor African country have equal rights to live the way they want as long as they do not violate any standards established by law.
It is true that individuals living in the Western countries enjoy many opportunities. For example, poverty and hunger are not common in the West compared to other parts of the world. However, poor people in different corners of the earth live happily without enjoying the benefits enjoyed by the Westerners. For instance, Malawi is one of the poorest nations in the world where people live happily (Malawi the peaceful country, still the poorest nation in the world 2013). This also means no one’s basic human rights are violated in this poor country. At the same time, many people today face difficulties because of war and gun culture in the Western world. There are many people in the Western countries like America and Europe suffering in prisons. Many get killed by terrorists in Europe and America. Therefore, human rights are not a Western phenomenon.
Mostly, the Westerners are responsible for developing the practices and ideas about human rights. Therefore, their ideas are mostly rejected by the non-Western world (Donnelly 2013, p 70). However, Donnelly believes that human rights are so important that they cannot be rejected or accepted based on the place where they originated. Many years ago, when many of the non-Western states in Africa were not free, they blamed the Western countries for forcing their concept of human rights upon them if they wanted to be free (Osiatynski 2008, p. 187). The non-Western countries always found fault with the Westerners for telling them how to live. At that time, more than sixty years ago, many of the third world countries and African nations were not independent and were not represented in the UN. However, after independence all the African nations accepted the universal declaration on human rights. This proves that the concept of human rights is common to all and not a Western phenomenon.
It is true that countries across the world are interested in ensuring the basic human rights of their citizens by promoting peace. For example, Turkey improved the condition of human rights in its territory through abandoning death penalty and improving the condition of its prisons. Turkey also improved its relationships with national minorities like the Kurdish through granting cultural rights before joining the European Union (Wilson 2005, p 24). On the other hand, Western nations like Italy, Spain and America control their countrymen and small political parties to prevent terrorism (Wilson 2005, p 24). This means these countries do not allow their countrymen to enjoy the basic human rights. If local parties cannot participate in elections, it is a violation of basic human rights.
Similarly, cultural and political reasons are more responsible for violation of human rights in non-Western nations. But this is not very common in the West. For instance, in Ghana and other neighboring countries Virgin girls are offered to priests of the village in a traditional practice called Trokosi. They believe this reduces the anger of gods on the crimes of their family members (Slavery in Ghana: The Trokosi Tradition 2002). It is a clear case of violence of the basic rights of women and children. The poor little girls are forcibly made to serve the priests throughout their life by working in their farms and bearing their children. This type of slavery violates basic rights of many people, and still continues because of the faith and respect people have on traditional social norms.
Similarly, the Almajiris of Nigeria are denied each and every single right as given in the Child Rights (Muhammed 2016). This cruel practice involves giving up small children as little as four years to spiritual leaders called Imam to teach the Quran. The word Almajiri in Arabic means someone who goes away from home in search of new spiritual knowledge. But in practice, these children are also left to beg on the streets for their living. They are compelled to beg with bowls and often forced to eat leftovers from the tables of restaurants. This practice denies a happy childhood to these children. It is also a slavery that violates basic human rights (Muhammed 2016). Thus, religious and cultural factors play a role in violating human rights in non-Western countries.
The Muslim societies are often blamed for not giving their rights to women. Now, they are being praised for protecting the rights of gay men within the Muslim society. This is a clear indication that like the Western countries, the non-Westerners are also aware of protecting the gay men of their societies. Frequently, the Western media project the issue of protecting the basic rights of homosexuals to justify they alone are the promoters of the human rights of such people. It is a positive move on the part of the Muslim communities to see homosexual men as their own brothers and guarantee their basic human rights. This would completely change the opinion the Western world once had about the Islam world (Kincheloe, Steinberg and Stonebanks 2010). In other words, the eastern and even the tough societies are more concerned about ensuring basic human rights to their nationals. This clearly shows that human rights are common to all and not a Western phenomenon.
Looking back into history, in many non-Western societies individuals were not given freedom and rights like the Western culture (Tharoor 2000). For instance, in the Eastern traditions like the Vedic, duties of individuals were considered more important than rights. Similarly, most of the traditional African societies enjoyed communal and group rights. At the same time, these practices did not violate the basic human rights. Even many developed countries today openly argue that certain human rights as believed by the West are not related to their cultures (Tharoor 2000). Here it is quite clear that these societies are extremely careful of avoiding the Western values from spoiling their societies. They think what the Western countries believe as basic human rights would spoil their culture. Therefore, according to them the Western countries are not promoters of basic human values. They are only pushing their culture on the non-Western countries for their own benefits.
Most importantly, the concept of human rights is derived from the fundamental truth of being good human beings (Tharoor, 2000). Human rights are not gifted by a particular government to its citizens. However, the standards on human rights accepted by all would become a reality only if all nations apply them within their legal system. Therefore, countries have the challenge of ensuring basic human rights to all their citizens. They can do it without affecting the old practices which are good to the people. At the same time, countries can follow different approaches to ensure basic human rights without separating any particular groups. Even though the Western societies provide more comforts and opportunities to their citizens there are still many individuals facing difficulties in enjoying their basic rights. This is because of socio-political and other reasons (Posner 2014). Therefore, human rights are not a Western phenomenon but a universal one. It is true that the Western world also experiences basic human right violation of different kinds each and every day.
Reference
Donnelly, J., 2013. Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice, Cornell University Press.
Kincheloe , J. L., Steinberg, S. R., and Stonebanks C. D., 2010. Teaching against Islamophobia, New York: Peter Lang
Malawi the peaceful country, still the poorest nation in the world, 2013. “Nyasa Times” [Online], Available at: http://www.nyasatimes.com/2013/07/23/malawi-the-peaceful-country-still-the-poorest-nation-in-the-world/
Muhammed, A., (2016). “The Almajiris: Nigeria’s Child Beggars.” African outlook [Online], Available at: http://www.africanoutlookonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view= article&id=2942:the-almajiris-nigerias-child-beggars&catid=96:allcomers&Itemid=54
Osiatynski, W., 2008. The Universality of human rights In Individual and Human Rights Central European University Reader page 187.
Posner, E., 2014. “The case against human rights.” The Guardian.[Online], Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/dec/04/-sp-case-against-human-rights
Slavery in Ghana: The Trokosi Tradition, 2002. “Equality now,” [Online], Available at: http://www.equalitynow.org/node/185
Tharoor, S., 2000. “Are human rights universal?” World Policy Journal, Vol.16, No. 4. Available at: http://www.worldpolicy.org/tharoor.html
United Nations Human Rights, 2016. “What are human rights?” [Online], Available at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/WhatareHumanRights.aspx
Wilson, R., 2005. Human rights in the War on Terror, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
