THE UNIVERSITY OF Manchester

“Human Rights in World Politics” POLI 70492
Essay title: East meets West: Human Rights in Perspective.

Lecturer: Dr James Pattison

Essay Question: “Should Universal Human Rights Be Enforced regardless of Cultural differences?”

ID Number: 8262033

Introduction: Even though human rights are of the major issues in our current day world, it has not been the case over the course of human history. Despite some early calls by the Greeks especially Aristotle for citizenship rights and participation in the political life, slavery was regarded as a normal feature back then and it was not until the 18th century that serious attempts to protect human rights and dignity took place: The two major events promoting these rights were without doubt the United States of America’s declaration of independence in 1776 and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789 both of which endorsed some basic rights and freedom which were a huge step forward at the time. As an example, the French declaration clearly enclosed the following article “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Following these two events, many Western writers and philosophers such as John Stuart Mill, Thomas Paine, and G.W.F. Hegel defended human civil rights and liberties in their writings which led to the first appearance and adoption of the exact term of “human rights” in 1831, when William Lloyd Garrison published The Rights of Man intending to insinuate his readers in "the great cause of human rights". Since then, human rights became most commonly defined as “The basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled to”, frequently enclosing the right of