UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN-RIGHTS AND CULTURAL-DIVERSITY - IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN-RIGHTS IN DIFFERENT SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXTS

A group of nations is seeking to redefine the content of the term "human rights' against the will of the Western states. This group sees the current definition as part of the ideological patrimony of Western civilization. They argue that the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration reflect Western values and not their own. They complain that the West is interfering in their internal affairs when it imposes its own definition of human rights upon them, and that it hampers their trade and weakens their competitiveness. The only possible answer is that achieving universal acceptance of international human rights norms is a process, and different norms occupy different places on the continuum. Change and acceptance of these norms must ultimately come from within the region and cannot be imposed by outside forces. The creation of a regional human rights arrangement provides for its participants an accelerated acceptance in the region of a catalogue of international human rights norms. -from Author