인권의 보편성 문제 = Thinking Through the Universality of Human Rights

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Human rights have been among the prime issues engaging the attention of the community of nations since the 2nd World War, and the progress made over the last few decades can be measured in terms of the extent of the internalization and internationalization of human rights. However, we still witness heated controversies over the universality of human rights across nations. Reflecting varying circumstances and differing worldviews, human rights refer to a wide continuum of value claims expressive of both the "is" and the "ought" in all domains of human affairs.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born out of the 'experience' of war and the Holocaust. No philosophical argument can be as strong as moral repulsion of gross violations of human dignity. The drafters of the Declaration did not deduce the articles of the Declaration from any abstract moral principles. The philosophical lesson is simply that not God, and not reason, and not nature, but 'the experience of sufferings' is the proper epistemological starting point for any defence of our belief in universal human rights. And the transmission of moral knowledge requires constant travel between the abstract and the concrete, between the text and the context. To understand and accept the universal character of human rights, we must be brought back to the violations in reality, continuing our efforts to uphold the value of universal human rights. Universal human rights are neither given nor discovered; those are to be fought for and achieved through our praxis.
This paper examines the issues related to the universality of humans rights, addressing the following questions: Is it possible to provide a philosophical foundation for universal human rights? How should we cope with the challenges from multicultural and relativist arguments? In what way can we cultivate "a culture of human rights" on a global level? With these questions in mind, it starts with a historical review of human rights discourse; critically analyzes liberal-rationalist attempts (especially John Rawls's) to justify the universalizability of human right; examines the status of universal human right in the multicultural situation of contemporary world; and finally suggests a way of making stronger arguments for universal human rights.