Teaching Comparative

Human Rights as Universals?

Here's a conceptual topic for your students to consider. What are human rights? And, are they universal?

Below is an excerpt from an interview of Iranian dissident Emad Baghi by a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The discussion focuses on the relationship between Islam and human rights.

But there are other things to consider.


The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is online at the UN web site.

How does that list compare with the U.S. Bill of Rights?

And the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights?

Then there's the article from Xinhua on its China View web site, Human Rights Can be Manifested Differently.

And, here's what The Constitution of the Russian Federation says in Section One, Chapter 2, "Rights and Liberties of Man and Citizen."

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are concerned about human rights in Mexico. Should they be concerned?

While the Human Rights Act has given the UK its first bit of written constitution, the debates about the implications continue. See "Liberty's" concerns and The Guardian's special section on human rights.

Here's a link to "Chapter 4: Fundamental Rights" in the Nigerian constitution.

___Interview with Emad Baghi___

World: Islam And Human Rights

"Is the concept of an Islamic state compatible with accepted notions of human rights? Can the modern concept of human rights make headway in the face of religious dogma and Islamic traditions? Emad Baghi, the head of the Tehran-based Organization for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights, knows at first hand the political sensitivity of new interpretations of religious texts, especially those involving human rights and the death penalty: in 2000, Baghi, then the editor in chief of the journal "Fath," was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for writing about the death penalty and retribution, as well as the killing of political and intellectual dissidents.

"RFE/RL: I suspect we are entering into a highly controversial area. Scholars and intellectuals differ widely on the question of what caused the Islamic world to fall to a lowly position by almost all standards of modern civilization. Traditionally, intellectuals in the developing world tend to blame the West. Are you proposing a revisionist view?


"Baghi: I believe that the demise of the humanistic view, which was deeply rooted in our classical literature, has resulted in the persistence of totalitarian systems in which human dignity has no place and in which everything is political and ideological. That is the main source of the decline of Islamic civilization. Some blame colonialism and imperialism for this failure. I believe that the main cause -- an indigenous cause -- was dictatorship and a lack of freedom, although colonialism contributed to this since these two phenomena were mutually dependent: naturally, the colonial powers needed stable and powerful governments in these countries to be able to exploit their resources – and only dictators could achieve that..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:28 AM