Cultural relativism Essay

The issue of universalism of benevolent unspoileds vs. cultural relativism has been a focal point of heated turn for the last several decades. As globalization is bringing nations together, cultural differences and peculiarities become progressively more salient. The Universal resolving of human beings Rights, adopted by the United race in 1948, lists several categories of proficients that the peoples of the world sustain agreed to accept and recognize.These rightlys include the right to life, liberty and security of person the right to be dispatch from slavery and servitude the right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading word or arbitrary arrest, detention or exile the right to marriage with the free and full consent of the parties the right to declare property the right to freedom of thought, moral sense and religionm and the right to work, to free choice of employment, to estimable and favorable conditions of work (United Nations, 1948).The se rights are universally recognized because they protect the dignity of an individualist and the basic social institutions which are record in virtually every culture. However, their universality is still contested, as human rights as laid out in the global covenants ignore the traditions, the religions, and the socio-cultural patterns of what used to be called the one-third World (Tharoor, 1998, para.1). For example, in some African societies, root word rights have always taken precedence over individual rights, and governmental decisions have been made through group consensus, not through individual assertions of rights (Tharoor, 1998, para. 4). there are many instances when traditional practices difference of opinion with universal human rights.For example, female genital mutilation, practiced by some African and Asian people for cultural and common reasons, translates into irreversible lifelong health risks for females (UNICEF, 2008). The contend whether human right s are universal is perennial. It is chief(prenominal) to recognize, however, that an effective framework for the shelter of human rights can be developed completely using a bottom-up approach, loose the broad support of a rules of order where human rights are promoted.References Tharoor, Shashi. (1998). Are homosexual Rights Universal? World Policy Journal, 16(4). Retieved June 11, 2009, from http//www. worldpolicy. org/journal/tharoor. html UNICEF. (2008). Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting. Retrieved June 11, 2009, from http//www. unicef. org/protection/index_genitalmutilation. html United Nations. (1948). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved June 11, 2009, from http//www. un. org/en/documents/udhr