A Non-Western Concept of Human Rights (Yulianna Malevich)

Раздел - "Международное право", рубрика - "Концепция прав человека"The article "A Non-Western Concept of Human Rights" is devoted to the problem of exploration of "non-western" concepts of approach towards the human rights issue. The aim of the article is a brief study of the ways along which some of "non-western" traditional cultures approached treating the problems which are now referred to as the sphere of human rights. The author further proves that the social guarantees which are viewed as identical with human rights are in fact very far from the real human rights and are connected with a large number of obligations. The author undertakes a sufficiently deep analysis of the sources basis and literature on this problem. The article devotes much attention to the human rights tradition in the Islamic world. The author notes that the Koran texts supposedly declare 14 human rights established by Islam. However, these rights are not universal being guaranteed only for rulers and large-scale proprietors. In Islam obligations have greater importance than rights in the sphere of human rights. Nevertheless, whatever are the rights, they arise as a consequence of somebody's actions or status and not simply of the fact of existence of a human being as such. The next step of the author is the exploration of traditional Africa and China. The author enters into polemics with African scientists who believe that traditional African societies have been maintaining and realizing human rights on the continent for a long time. The author's point of view is that such claims confuse human rights with a limited form of government. Even when the Africans have the possibility of personal rights protection from the government's infringement these rights are not based on humanism per se, but on various criteria: age, sex or social status. The recognition of human rights is not the way of traditional Africa and their application has never been important in political practice. The Chinese language completely lacks the term "human rights" in modern interpretation of this word, because China is influenced by Confucian ideas and there is no need to use such provisions of international law. The traditional Chinese doctrine of human rights is fully expressed in the enumeration of "the rulers'" responsibility; this is an approach which is very far from the true understanding of the human rights concept. The article argues that there exists a striking similarity between the Chinese, African and Islamic approaches towards human rights which differs from the modern western concept. The article devotes attention to the situation with human rights in the former USSR. The Soviet State declared all universal human rights but went no further. In fact, human rights were inseparable from responsibilities. This situation was codified in the Soviet Constitution and stemmed from the philosophical and ideological concept of the Soviet State. The author states that Soviet citizens had only those rights which were guaranteed by the State and could not be considered as "human rights" in the common sense of this word. For the further proof of this point of view the author considers the problem of individualism within the human rights theory. Human rights are inherent to individuals and are realized regarding the society, being as a rule based on the principle "individual in a state". Here also the theory of "privileges" is viewed as a peculiar expression of human rights. Such development of the given theory may result in the destruction of the "human rights" concept in the societies where it prevails. The author concludes that the individual needs individual rights which are necessary for real protection of human rights. In conclusion the author devotes attention to the problem of relevance of human rights for the whole humanity not touching on the economic and political differences in development. The lower is the level of social development of the society the greater is the need of an individual for real guarantees of human rights. The author believes that people should not be allowed to lose the practice of human rights, because it is equivalent to social regress for all mankind