Part II | Outline
Category D | Human Rights
Topic 21 | Human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated
Human rights instruments, beginning with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted at a World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, emphasize that human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. Freedom of religion or belief should be understood as part of this tapestry of fundamental human rights.
- The key idea is that discussions of human rights that omit or minimize freedom of religion or belief run the risk of undermining the entire human rights project.
- Universal means that the rights apply to all people in all places and are obligations of all governments to promote and protect the right.
- Indivisible means that efforts to separate freedom of religion or belief into a category other than human rights is a conceptual and legal error. Freedom of religion cannot be divorced from other human rights.
- Interdependent means that the realization of other human rights will depend on the realization of freedom of religion and belief as well.
- Interrelated means that basic human rights reinforce and strengthen each other in their realization. Rights such as nondiscrimination are related to religious freedom, as are rights such as speech, the press, association, assembly, etc.
- A key challenge in a system of indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated rights is that it is hard to focus on everything at once. Identifying the root right at issue may prove fruitful in a given situation. For example, the most pressing issue may be a violation of religious freedom, even if it implicates other, related rights.
Critiques and Responses
Critique of universality. It has been argued that human rights are a Western concept that should not be imposed on other cultures, particularly on countries that hold different values.
- Response. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action suggests that fundamental human rights must be implemented, in spite of cultural or regional differences, but that such differences should be considered and respected.
Critique of rights as indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. Because many different and varied human rights have been recognized, some wonder how they could all be related and form part of the same system of rights.
- Response. All human rights, although different, share common goals of preserving human dignity and promoting freedom and equality for everyone. Rather than thinking immediately in terms of tradeoffs, it is usually helpful to first seek strategies of mutual vindication of rights. Sometimes limitation of rights is justified, but this must be within permissible legal boundaries.