I don't know what to say - and I am not usually a tongue-tied person. I guess seen from the vantage point of a particular culture or country, even rank opposite stances might sometimes make sense when the cultural context is factored in.
I worked for 20 odd years at the Council of Europe (www.coe.int) in Strasbourg, France . The COE is Europe's oldest and largest international organisation and almost all European countries are members of the COE. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is one of the greatest achievements of the COE and it tries to spread - less charitable souls might say "evangelise" - these values across Europe and its immediate shores. I guess, the most tangible effect of the ECHR is the abolishment of capital punishment in Europe, including in Russia. Today Belarus is the only country with the death penalty on its statute books. Although, in Russia, dissidents do tend to fall out of windows or get run over and so on...
So that brings the question of universality of human rights, and more generally, the rights of the individual vs the rights of the collective whole. Some thorny questions:
- Is abolishing capital punishment something all countries and cultures should espouse? Or is it just another European construct that former colonial masters are trying to impose on their former subjects?
- Should children be asked/expected/obliged to fast during certain Islamic, Jain and Hindu rituals?
- Should Europe have the right to ban the horrendous practice of female genital mutilation (FMG) not only within Europe but also across the world? Thus, should a girl with origins in an East African country but living, in say Norway, be protected by Norwegian laws or are her rights denied by Norwegian laws?
- Should spanking of children - a practice that was rife in Europe until the 70s - be criminalised universally?
- Is arranged marriage a transgression of individual rights ? Does the answer change depending on whether you are in Madrid, Spain or Madras, India?
For sure there will always be tension between universalism and particularism. Much of European universalism is propagated by wealthy, Western European nations with a colonial baggage. But the same can be said of religious movements that firmly believe in the universalism of their values and try to thrust it down the throats of "non-believers", "pagans", "shudras" or what have you.
The same can also be said of many Asian cultures that practise their own local variants of universalism by emphasising the rights of the community ahead of the individual. The pressures to conform to the common values of the community are strong, especially on women. But conformity does not produce a Galileo Galilei, a Mary Wollstonecraft or even a Srinivasa Ramanujan.
I don't know whether ALL values are universal and can be universal. But I guess a lot of European ideas in the domain of human rights ought to be universal. Even if nation states themselves are hypocritical in their application.
Thank you for a thoughtful, incisive essay. You helped clarify this visceral annoyance I feel when I engage with global colleagues at work sometimes, and I didn’t know why. While your essay speaks of how this impacts foreign policy, I think it rings true at an inter personal level too. There’s something to be said about the generational baggage we’ve inherited from being colonised, and how biases creep in when we engage in a workplaces and other allegedly modern contexts.
I don't know what to say - and I am not usually a tongue-tied person. I guess seen from the vantage point of a particular culture or country, even rank opposite stances might sometimes make sense when the cultural context is factored in.
I worked for 20 odd years at the Council of Europe (www.coe.int) in Strasbourg, France . The COE is Europe's oldest and largest international organisation and almost all European countries are members of the COE. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is one of the greatest achievements of the COE and it tries to spread - less charitable souls might say "evangelise" - these values across Europe and its immediate shores. I guess, the most tangible effect of the ECHR is the abolishment of capital punishment in Europe, including in Russia. Today Belarus is the only country with the death penalty on its statute books. Although, in Russia, dissidents do tend to fall out of windows or get run over and so on...
So that brings the question of universality of human rights, and more generally, the rights of the individual vs the rights of the collective whole. Some thorny questions:
- Is abolishing capital punishment something all countries and cultures should espouse? Or is it just another European construct that former colonial masters are trying to impose on their former subjects?
- Should children be asked/expected/obliged to fast during certain Islamic, Jain and Hindu rituals?
- Should Europe have the right to ban the horrendous practice of female genital mutilation (FMG) not only within Europe but also across the world? Thus, should a girl with origins in an East African country but living, in say Norway, be protected by Norwegian laws or are her rights denied by Norwegian laws?
- Should spanking of children - a practice that was rife in Europe until the 70s - be criminalised universally?
- Is arranged marriage a transgression of individual rights ? Does the answer change depending on whether you are in Madrid, Spain or Madras, India?
For sure there will always be tension between universalism and particularism. Much of European universalism is propagated by wealthy, Western European nations with a colonial baggage. But the same can be said of religious movements that firmly believe in the universalism of their values and try to thrust it down the throats of "non-believers", "pagans", "shudras" or what have you.
The same can also be said of many Asian cultures that practise their own local variants of universalism by emphasising the rights of the community ahead of the individual. The pressures to conform to the common values of the community are strong, especially on women. But conformity does not produce a Galileo Galilei, a Mary Wollstonecraft or even a Srinivasa Ramanujan.
I don't know whether ALL values are universal and can be universal. But I guess a lot of European ideas in the domain of human rights ought to be universal. Even if nation states themselves are hypocritical in their application.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Much food for thought in it.
Thank you for a thoughtful, incisive essay. You helped clarify this visceral annoyance I feel when I engage with global colleagues at work sometimes, and I didn’t know why. While your essay speaks of how this impacts foreign policy, I think it rings true at an inter personal level too. There’s something to be said about the generational baggage we’ve inherited from being colonised, and how biases creep in when we engage in a workplaces and other allegedly modern contexts.
Thank you for this thoughtful comment.
Beautifully articulated and on point.
This brushed off a massive cobweb of bias that I didn't even know I had. And to think I'm from a former colony, twice over.
So glad it served as food for thought.
incisive and insightful. Superb read.
Thank you.
This was an incredibly illuminating read
Thank you! Pls share