Human rights and the way of the world

I have been reading a book entitled "Inventing Human Rights" by Lynn Hunt. Imagine, human rights had to be invented. However, I think human rights have always been there, just hidden from view. Instead, they’ve had to be discovered and revealed to the world. And as a result, human rights have substantially determined the ways of our world.
There are those who have thought the idea of human rights is nonsense. The utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham thought of them "nonsense on stilts". He came to that conclusion on seeing what was being perpetrated in their name during the French Revolution. Edmund Burke, the inspiration of modern conservatism, thought that people should be more concerned about natural rights. James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, also thought of them as ridiculous, that the idea should be abandoned and instead the focus should be on human needs and aspirations. But as the historian Francis Fukuyama pointed out, human needs and aspirations have virtually become synonymous with human rights.

I don't think human needs and aspirations can be met without human rights being constitutionally entrenched or legislated. Sustainable democracy certainly wouldn’t be possible without that occurring. For instance, democracy finds its credence and vitality in the demands placed on it by the many, people who have been emancipated and empowered by rights, especially the right to challenge governments and hold them accountable. And if women and minorities are excluded from also having rights, as they once were and still are in many parts of the world, then democracy is a sham.

As Hunt outlines, it is mainly three declarations that have entrench human rights throughout the world, the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in 1789 and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. (In England, the cradle of human rights, they evolved more empirically, not through any single declaration.) These declarations, she writes, declared sovereignty to nations and to citizens, not to kings or any one group, but pronounced everybody equal before the law. A profound point Hunt made is that because of these declarations of equality, positions of governance and organization were opened up to ordinary people, not just to the ruling classes, making society less corrupt and more efficient.

I was captivated by the passage "all men are created equal" in the American Declaration of Independence. It seems clear that all men are not created equal. And why weren't women and minorities included in that thought. It is obvious the declaration had a certain class of "men" in mind, men of property and of a certain race. However, theoretically and interpretively it went beyond that original meaning. Had that idea not truly become universal and the foundational mindset of America, America as a democratic nation would not have been possible. People had to at least have a sense that they were equal and had rights if America hoped to develop its diversity of people into a coherent mass. And as America matured that phrase lost much of its earlier emptiness and strove to encompass all people.

Embracing human rights seems like the proper humanitarian thing to do. There is a reciprocal element to it in that if you treat others with such respect you can expect the same. However, I also see a more basic and practical reason for embracing and promoting human rights. The observance of human rights empowers individuals, from which emerges responsible and accomplished citizens. This empowerment makes people feel like they are worth something, that they have a stake in the system and therefore are more engaged and productive. As Hunt points out, the idea of equality also opens up positions of governance to people who normally would not get them. In the past, without this equality, positions of governance went to the elite and those who inherited them. The idea of equality based on talent and merit broke up this traditional system of governance. Human rights and the equality it introduced into work force meant that no longer would jobs in governance go to the ruling class as they traditionally had but to those who were most competent. Thus, equal rights expanded the workforce, curbed corruption and introduced new blood and vitality to it. And as one may have notices societies that foster human rights are the most successful.

Hegel talked about human rights. He talked about them in terms of recognition and freedom. He believed that humans were entitled to those rights and that the struggle for them would determine the ways of the world and history. He was right. For instance, the struggle for recognition and freedom determined the ascendancy and triumph of democracy and capitalism because those two systems of governance have best fulfilling those desires. In contrast, the systems that opposed democracy and capitalism, communism and other authoritarian regimes, collapsed because they denied individuals their due rights of recognition and freedom.

If human rights and equality had been observed in countries like Rwanda and Yugoslavia the genocide and ethnic cleansing that occurred there would never have happened. If those nations had observed human rights they would have been democracies and thus never would have behaved in such a manner.

As I was reading Hunt's book I was thinking about another book, Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism". Totalitarianism has occurs in places where human rights have never been observed, where the idea of individual recognition and freedom never existed. Much of her book addresses the "Jewish question" and was aroused by the denigrating treatment Jews received under the Third Reich. That was one of the worst violations of human rights ever perpetrated against humankind. As I thought more about her book it became clear to me that the violations against Jews at that time and how the world has addressed the issue since is what has made human rights one of the cornerstones of our time. And how Jews were treated by the Third Reich most definitely helped give birth to the United Nations Universal Charter of Human Rights, a document that has most definitely changed and defined our present world.