What are human rights? (2)
I concentrate on the global system of human rights and their implementation. A good place to begin is to highlight the main characteristics of human rights.
There are certain words that are frequently used to describe human rights: universal, inalienable, indivisible, interrelated, inviolable, etc. Human rights are said to be universal because they apply to all human beings irrespective of race, colour, creed and status.
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This stems from and is derivative of the very nature of human rights — pertaining and inherent to everyone because of their humanity. Rights are also said to be inalienable because they attach to every human being and so no one can take them away.
They are indivisible and interrelated in the sense that you cannot separate them as all have equal status. Another common thread running through human rights that makes them indivisible and interrelated is that they are all geared towards ensuring and securing the welfare and well-being of all people and in the process, protect the dignity of the person enjoying it.
For example, the right to life is closely related to the right to work because it is believed that in order to live a dignified life, which is a sine qua non of all human rights, one has to be able to provide oneself with the basic necessities of life, which are unattainable if you do not have a reasonable living wage.
Fundamental
Furthermore, human rights are sometimes referred to as fundamental. This is because they are essential and necessary because they provide suitable conditions for material and moral upliftment of human beings; a necessity for the fulfilment of life.
As such, they are held to be sacrosanct and inviolable, and immutable – it is what it is and cannot be altered.
Theory
The broad human rights theory, that they are universal and apply to every human being, irrespective of geographical location, has been challenged, holding that the notion of the universality of human rights is a neo-imperialist theory of the western world and an attempt to impose western concepts on other regions.
The cultural relativist argument is that some human rights are distinct and unique only to westerners, and the idea of the universality of rights has been invented to impose such values on other cultures.
An area where this has been brought into sharp focus in Ghana is the recent brouhaha on LGBTQ+ rights. Most of the arguments pronounced by the sponsors of the bill to outlaw LGBTQ+ rights have centred on the fact that homosexuality is alien to Ghanaian culture.
Also, there is a raging battle between universalists and cultural relativists in the application of Sharia Law. For instance, adultery is ‘haram’ and prohibited under Sharia Law and is punishable in some instances by stoning to death. This punishment, clearly, is contrary to many human rights: cruel and inhuman punishment, torture, life, etc.
The seeming contradictions and differences of opinion on universalism and cultural relativism are interesting topics that will be the subject of a later article. But suffice to say that cultural relativists cannot have their cake and eat it: they can’t subscribe, ratify and enjoy human rights like the right to vote, assembly, free speech, work, fair trial, political participation, non-discrimination, etc., while at the same time practice laws that are in opposition to them - a kind of contradiction in terms!
Human rights are evolutionary and this stems from the fact that over time, human dignity has become the focal point of the argument and taken the centre stage. If human dignity is the cornerstone and the driving force of human rights, then it follows that everything that promotes dignity can be added to the portfolio. Human rights therefore have evolved on an incremental basis, with human dignity as the prime force.
In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, freed all the slaves, and declared that all people had the right to choose their own religion and were equal.
This was monumental in those times as it was the birth of the concept of non-discrimination; so prevalent and de rigour in all modern democracies.
There are other monumental periods in the evolution of human rights like the Magna Carta, which spawned the English Bill of Rights which gave Parliament power over the monarchy.
Experts say that without doubt, this was the beginning of constitutional law.
The writer is a lawyer