Can a Utilitarian support Human Rights protection

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Can a Utilitarian support Human Rights protection?

Can a Utilitarian

Support Human Rights protection?

  1. Introduction

The protection of human right is one of the challenges that we face today, for instance killing innocent, children abusing, and gender-based inequality. In the face of increasing of violation of human rights surrounding the world, it seems very important to examine the ways by which we could protect human rights. In this essay I would like to make such an analysing the utilitarian principle in view of examines whether it can help us to protect human rights or not. The argument is that utilitarianism does not provide with a sufficient theoretical basis for the protection of human rights. In order to do that, we will begin by go through the utilitarian thought, and then examine the notion of human rights. We will also see the relationship of these conceptions: utilitarianism and human rights, on how they engage to one another.

  1. Concept of Human Rights

First of all, it is significant to have such a clear perception about what “human rights” actually are? Martin Scheinin (1998) provides a human rights definition as follows:

“By human rights we mean the rights that belong to all humans equally. Today we consider as human rights mainly those rights that are protected by universal or regional human rights conventions. Human rights conventions are legally binding international treaties between states. In the conventions the states commit themselves to guaranteeing certain rights both to their own citizens and to other people residing in their territory.” (www.ykliitto.fi).

Similarly, according to Fagan (2004), human rights are rights which are owned by human beings and function as moral guarantees in support of our claims towards the enjoyment of a minimally good life. The implication of these two quoted definitions are that there are several elements of human rights that are included in this concept namely some particular rights for every human, the equality of all human kind everywhere and anytime, the protection of human rights by convention, and that human rights do not depend on border or territory. In addition, the latter indicates that human rights are definitely universal.

The Universal Declaration on Human Rights points out the certain fundamental rights; they are: security of person; freedom from slavery and servitude; freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; freedom from arbitrary interference in private and family life, home and correspondence; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; freedom of assembly; freedom of association; freedom to unite in trade unions; the right to marry and found a family; the right of parents to choose the kind of education to be given to their children; and the right to own property. (Merrills and Robertson, 2001). In terms of protected human rights by state or nation, one of the scholastic thought has been promoted by John Locke (1632-1704) with his effort to developed the idea of rights that precede the state and the guaranteeing of which is the basis of the state's authority (www.ykliitto.fi). The implication of Lock’s ideas is that a state exists to protect the rights of its people or citizen.

In the doctrine of human rights, a person is both as the object and the subject of human rights; with in the state, this means that everybody receives equal treatment. And thus, equality of every human being is the main point of whole idea of human rights, both as the owner and the employer. Merrills and Robertson have underlined this by declaring that:

“The whole idea of human rights is that they pertain to everyone by virtue of their personality, that is to say by virtue of their nature as human beings. This being so, if follows that international measures to secure their protection cannot be limited in their effect to the citizens of one country or of a group of countries. Fundamental rights belong to everybody.” (Merrills and Robertson, 2001; pp 25).

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Moreover, the word “everyone” is strictly employed in the whole articles of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1998),  in which this is to emphasize that the rights is completely personal ownership.

 

This point of view is strengthened by Lyons (1984), in more specific terms, when he writes that the rights are many times could be called ‘natural’ or ‘human’, and even if more than that; natural or human rights are the rights for all people just by a realistic status as human beings. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that human rights have been defined as 'basic ...

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