THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE WESTERN WORLD

Abstract

This essay sought to address the evolution of what would be called today human rights, since its genesis, including evolution, consolidation and the most current theories on the subject. To that purpose, a descriptive qualitative research was developed, based on a literature review. The genesis of human rights can be observed at different historical moments, but there would be a certain doctrinal consensus on the connection between the Enlightenment, modern jusnaturalism and the human rights as they are called today. There is also consensus on the framework for the consolidation of such rights in the post-World War II era, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After that moment, there was an expansion of human rights, influencing international law and the creation of international human rights organizations. Although there is disagreement about the so-called human rights and their western bias, the contemporary scholarship would defend the dialogue between cultures, since they all deal with notions, even if different ones, of human dignity. This essay also affirms respect for diversity is the core of human rights, and that such respect could create adequate conditions for celebrating a culture of human rights. Given this, it is expected that this essay contributes to the elaboration of other works that focus, for example, on the different conceptions of human rights that coexist today in different non-western cultures, which would contribute even more to a comprehensive concept about what would therefore be human rights in a global conception.