The Pros And Cons Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

Human rights as we know it today, is a result of centuries of philosophical debates. These debates revolved around issues like morality and ethical standards that can be applied to leadership or political structures of all forms, as well as individual human beings, all over the world. When one delves into the historical background of human rights, the magnitude of the struggle that led to the universal declaration of human rights becomes very evident. Nevertheless, human rights in general continues to deal with its fair share of criticisms. As critical reasoning on human rights progressed especially in the 17th and 18th century, two clear paths were formed. While some thinkers argued that human rights are inherent in all human beings and so
In its preamble, it refers to the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of all human beings. This shows that the concept of dignity is the foundation for all the rights that the document seeks to protect. “Dignity” entered English discourse during the thirteenth century, via the Latin word dignus, which refers to merit, worth, honor, and distinction” (Wallach, 2014). Dignity was used in historic times to refer to high officials in the Roman empire or nobles and royalty. As discourse around the rights of man and dismantling of monarchial systems of government in favor of democracy began to grow, the word dignity was not just reserved for certain members of the society. The concept of dignity can also be traced back to religious beliefs centered on the idea that human beings are created in the Image and likeness of God and so there is a sense of respect and integrity attached to human beings and there is also the sacredness of life, regardless of culture, ethnicity, race or creed. One would think that it would be a given that human beings recognize their self-worth and respect and integrity but this was not the case. Some Philosophers did not agree with the idea of inherent dignity of the human body. For example, Friedrich Nietzsche regarded the proclamation of rights and human dignity as “a secular myth born of weakness…such phantoms as the dignity of man or the dignity of labour are the needy products of slave-dom hiding from itself” (Shah & Hertzke, 2016). He believed that human beings came to possess dignity out of the creation of their hands not that they were born with it. According to Thomas Hobbes, "a man's worth" is the same as his "price," or the "amount that would be paid for the use of his power” (Shell, 2008). For Hobbes, anybody that manages to get any form of power can be