Human Rights

2 Pages 468 Words

The article “Human Rights as a Common Concern” by Charles R. Beitz a professor of government at Bowdoin College published in “American Political Science” review. As shown by the title of the article it is about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the human rights of everyone in individual nation-states. “The global human rights regime is almost certainly more influential today then at any time since World War I” (Beitz 269). The rights have been influential in the U.S. the most in the last few weeks.
Beitz points out international human rights as partisan standards. His fist thought is what the international recognized human rights and the five separated categories. “The rights of the person refer to life, liberty, and the security or the person; rights associated with the rule of law include equal recognition; political rights encompass freedom of expression; economic and social rights refer to and adequate standard of living; rights of communities include self-determination and protection of minority cultures” (Beitz 271). As you look at these rights that are recognized by the nation-states they look very similar to the United States Bill of Rights. After the five categories Beitz tells about the rights of the individual nation-state gives to its people, for example, the FGM in Sahelian African.
The following section, Beitz discusses neutrality and paternalism. “ The evident partisanship of international human rights doctrine has led some philosophers to suggest
that we should distinguish between the full set of values recognized as human rights in international law and or human rights proper” (Beitz 272). He also illustrates moral
codes, different moralities and global moral pluralism. He gives the example of R.J. Vincent and his book about the “core of basic rights that is common to all cultures despite the apparently divergent theories.” Beitz also gives several other examples to support hi...