This monograph explores the historical, cultural, and philosophical circumstances surrounding the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(adopted by the United Nations in 1948), focusing on the debate over what “universality” of human rights truly means. Special attention is given to the UNESCO project on the philosophical foundations of human rights, led in 1947 by the French philosopher Jacques Maritain. This project brought together intellectuals, diplomats, and philosophers from various parts of the world – including representatives from Western liberal democracies as well as Islamic, Confucian, and other non-Western traditions – in an effort to define a shared understanding of human rights.
This study demonstrates that, despite the initial diversity of perspectives, the final version of the Declaration was shaped primarily according to the Western liberal-humanist conception of rights, grounded in individualism, personal autonomy, and the notion of natural rights. The ideas of representatives of Islamic, Confucian, Hindu and other non-Westerntraditions, which emphasized community, moral duty, and harmony between the individual and society, were largely marginalized. Тhis resulted in limited legitimacy and difficulties in the implementation of human rights across diverse cultural contexts, as well as in tensions between universalist and relativist approaches, which continue to shape global debates on human dignity and cultural diversity today.
In the concluding chapters, this study examines the possibility of achieving a global consensus on human rights in a world marked by profound cultural differences. In this context, it analyzes the philosophical visions of Hans-Georg Gadamer (the concept of the “fusion of horizons”); Charles Taylor(the politics of recognition and dialogical understanding); John Rawls (the concept of “overlapping consensus” among diverse moral and political doctrines); Yasuaki Onuma (intercivilizational approach and the idea of intercultural dialogue); Gianni Vattimo (hermeneutics of openness and tolerance), and Dimitrije Mitrinović (the idea of a cosmopolitan synthesis of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions) – all of whom, in different ways, seek to establish a genuinely intercultural foundation for the universality of human rights. The conclusion of the study emphasizes the need for a hermeneutic approach, based on mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue, which would recognize the dynamic nature of human rights and contribute to overcoming conflicts between different cultures and civilizations.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/eastern-and-western-conceptions-of-human-rights-9781978771918
