Ethics Essay

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Universal Human Rights
The Univeral Human Rights came into practice 1948. The document outlines the rights and freedom of all the human beings. The adoption was made by the assembly united nation motivated by the preceding world wars which made countries to come to an agreement about the importance of justice, freedom and peace in the world (Arnold 5). The document expressly provides that, all human beings share universal rights which are to be practiced by anybody anywhere.
According to the Universal human rights perspective, all people are subjected to equal rights and freedoms. These rights and freedoms apply to every individual regardless of where they come from or what they believe.
Relativism, however, argues that human values cannot be universal due to the differences in their cultures. According to my point of view, cultural relativism poses a great danger to the provisions of the universal human rights (Arnold 5). As such, it justifies abuses in the rights and freedom of people who are affected by barbaric customs and traditions. To this end, the rights and freedoms provided by international human rights are rejected by selfish individuals hiding behind customs. I strongly believe that culture should be dynamic and should, therefore, allow for change over time. If this is the case, the universal human rights will protect people from political, social and legal abuses across the globe (Arnold 5). An example where relativism abuses the individual’s rights is in the religion.

International human rights provide that every person has a right to choose his or her religion. However, this is ignored in some countries which force the citizens to take a religion they decide for them. In most Middle East countries, people are forced to convert from one religion to the other. Additionally, women are forced to wear a certain type of clothes in the name of the religion.
From the above argument, the universal human rights can only apply where cultural differences do not exist. However, it is evident that cultural relativism is an avoidable as people are defined by their culture.
Works cited
Arnold, Rainer. The universalism of human rights. Dordrecht New York: Springer, 2013. Print.