Human rights, universalism and intercultural debates

Abstract

Human Rights have historically been a flag raised in favor to mankind, and with hope that there might be equality and freedom in the post-World War II, in a world where socialism no longer would exist. So Human Rights are conceived by the international society as a fundamental and universal good. However, Human Rights were created as universals within a valorative matrix western and liberal, and were materialized following these values. By the fact that human rights carry Western values in its core, and, in most cases, keep an impositive practice of these rights, emerges a discussion about the actual assumptions of protection and defense of the peoples, from which rises an antagonism between the particular right of peoples and their autonomy, and the inalienable universal rights proposed for Human Rights. This paper presents the clash between universalism and cultural relativism in Human Rights, and discusses how overcoming this debate trying to reconcile the pernicious burden of these rights ”“ which is hegemonic, homogenizer in
processes of formation of nation-states ”“, to the legitimacy within their own cultures as a manner of seeking emancipation from the West oppression over subordinate groups.