Theories of human rights

Based on the grounds of human rights and the specific challenges to the universality claim of human rights, we can list the perspectives or theories of human rights as follows:

• Liberal theory of rights: Locke’s theory of natural rights as advocacy of rights of life, liberty and property of individuals can be considered as the basic human rights. This became basis of national declarations of rights of man and citizens and first generation rights in the international rights instruments. Libertarian theorist Robert Nozick has also invoked natural rights to support priority of right over equality as political value.
• Theory of welfare or positive rights: Rights, which are in the nature of social and economic rights and concern welfare of the people, belong to the second generation of rights.
• Cultural relativist theory of rights: Supporters of cultural relativism advocate recognition of relative significance and values of different societies and also groups in society and their protection. The Asian values versus universal rights claims can be associated with the relativist approach.
• Multi-cultural theory of rights: Supporters of multiculturalism endorse ‘diversity arising from racial, ethnic and language differences’. They argue that ‘individuals are culturally embedded, in the sense that they largely derive their understanding of the world and their framework of moral beliefs and sense of personal identity from the culture they live and develop’.⁸⁷ They advocate equal/fair opportunity to all groups for participation in the affairs of the state. This advocates claims for rights based on cultural practices and specificities. The very idea of human rights in a pluralist society, where different claims require recognition, needs revisiting. Emphasis on human rights may result in ethno-centric assumptions and the values of dominant group may get primacy over the weaker ones. The idea of minority and multicultural rights and right to their representation and at times self-determination, emerge from this perspective. Supporters of the multicultural perspective include theorists and writers such as Charles Taylor, Will Kymlicka and Bhikhu Parekh.
• Communitarian theory of rights: Some writers such as Michael Sandel, Alasdair Maclntyre, Charles Taylor, Michael Walzer and others have argued that each individual develops an identity, talent, and pursuits in life as a member of community only. As such, they reject the individualistic perspective of liberal and libertarian arguments. They are critical of treating the individual as autonomous rational and moral agent. This is known as Communitarian perspective of rights, as it seeks to identity choice of the individual in the life and identity of the community. In a sense, the communitarian position implies that the rights of the individuals should be recognized as part of community and not as autonomous choosers.
• Feminist theory of rights: Feminists criticize the content and language of the human rights debate. They have argued for women specific rights to be included as part of the human rights. Their focus is to transform the content of rights debate and get recognition for centrality of women’s rights. They feel that male dominated discourse has not provided enough space for women rights and as such there should be: (i) extension of relevant rights, which have been recognized as rights of men to women, and (ii) those rights, which are women specific, should be included in the human right discourse. Feminist theorists include Shulamith Firestone, Sheila Rowbotham, Catherine Mackinnon and others.
• Anti-colonial or post-colonial theory⁸⁸ of rights: A perspective that is based on the apprehension of colonial linkage of the non-western countries with erstwhile ruling powers and their contemporary avatars, argues against Euro-centric view of rights. As Heywood says, doctrine of human rights is portrayed as an example of cultural imperialism. Rights, which have specifically evolved in the context of European history, are being proposed as human rights. M. K. Gandhi (Indian leader who fought for liberation against British rule), Marcus Garvey (Jamaican political thinker and activist who advocated black nationalism along with economic self-sufficiency), Ayatollah Khomeini (Iranian leader of the Islamic Revolution), Franz Fanon (Algerian-French theorist whose The Wretched of the Earth, emphasized psychological aspects of colonial subjugation) and Edward Said (Palestinian-US writer who have authored Orientalism, Culture and Imperialism and argued that colonialism presented ideological and cultural biases that disempowered colonized people by representing them as the ‘non-Westerner’, other’, etc.) are considered as advocates of anti-colonial or post-colonial theory.
• Marxian theory of rights: Although there is no specific Marxian theory of Rights, the very idea of natural rights and particularly the right to private property would be alien to Marxian analysis. Natural rights have been constructed to revolve round the right to private property and as such it is against the very logic of socialist ownership of means of production. In a society with unequal distribution of property, Marxian perspective would argue, rights of man are nothing more than right to private property and advancing the interest of private property. Every right in a capitalist set-up is nothing but a right to inequality. If human rights are based on natural rights, they are nothing but bourgeois rights against the rights of the oppressed people. In a socialist society, every one would have equality of rights. One may argue that if everybody is rational, if everybody has equal capacity to own property and compete and if everybody is born with natural or human rights, then why is that some are so rich that they can buy others and others so poor that they are forced to sell them? History has not proved that all have enjoyed equal rights. Can you search for any moment of history when the propertied have fewer rights than those who did not have property? No answer; will not have.