III. Comment on the following quotations:

• No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive (Mahatma Gandhi)

• What sets the world in motion is the interplay of differences, their attraction and repulsions (Octavio Paz)

• You can’t teach a man anything, you can only help him to discover it in himself (Galileo Galilei)

• The evolution of the human rights movement clearly illustrates humanity's ongoing struggle toward creating a better world." (Robert Alan)

• It was never the people who complained of the universality of human rights, nor did the people consider human rights as a Western or Northern imposition. It was often their leaders who did so.( Kofi Annan)

• A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you. (Ramsey Clark)

IV. Suggested activities for students:

1. It’s common knowledge that rights can clash both with each other and with tradition. Should there necessarily be universal rights or it would be better for different countries with different cultures to have universal rights of their own? What could it lead to?

2. The article gives examples of western societies being intolerant and hierarchic. Research the matter and find examples of your own. What conclusions can you come to? Does the clash of “The West and the Rest” exist?

3. The idea of cultural imperialism has been broadly discussed. One American scholar writes³²: “We must understand and learn from other traditions while seeing them as historically conditioned – and this includes our own tradition. What we must not do….is elevate our own tradition to the status of “universalism” This is just rehashes cultural imperialism and has its roots in the dogmatic religious outlooks of the past and present”. In sum he argues, “We should realize that we create our own values, reacting to the times and climes and rational people can disagree on what these values are”.

Others reject such claims of cultural imperialism as poor attempts to justify the unjustifiable. President of Sri Lanka³³, for one, has expressed the opinion that “of course, every country has its own national ethos, but…when people talk about a conflict of values, I think it is an excuse that can be used to covers a multitude of sins”. Seconding this view Kofi Annan told an audience in Iran, there is “talk of human rights being a Western concept,… [but] don’t we all suffer from the lack of the rule of law and from arbitrariness? What is foreign about that? What is Western about that? And when we talk of the right [of people]… to live their lives to the fullest and to be able to live their dreams, it is universal”. Whose view do you find more persuasive? Why? Give your reasons.

4. Why and when do religious or other cultural differences breed conflict between different states? Can you think of states from different civilizations that seem to get along well, or states from the same civilization that are generally at odds?

5. In his essay “The Clash of Civilisations?” (1993) Samuel Huntington argued that “conflicts between groups in different civilizations will be more frequent, more sustained and more violent than conflicts between groups in the same civilization.” Have events since the article was written seemed to bear out or contradict Huntington’s thesis?

6. Here is the list of Everyone’s birthright

Rights	Document and article 34
Life	D3, C6
Liberty and security of person	D3, C9
Protection against slavery	D4,С8
Protection against torture and cruel and inhuman punishment	D5, C7
Recognition as a person before the law	D6, C16
Equal protection of the law	D7, C14, C26
Access to legal remedies for rights violations	D8, C2
Protection against arbitrary arrest or detention	D9, C9
Hearing before an independent and impartial judiciary	D10, C14
Presumption of innocence	D11, C15
Protection against ex post-facto laws	D11, C15
Protection of privacy, family, home	D12, C17
Freedom of movement and residence	D13, C12
Seek asylum from persecution	D14
Nationality	D15
Marry and found a family	D16, E 10, С 23
Own property	D17
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion	D18, C18
Freedom of assembly and association	D20, C21, C22
Political participation	D21, C25
Social security	D22, E9
Work under favourable conditions	D23, E6, E7
Free trade unions	D23, E8, C22
Rest and Leisure	D24, E7
Food, clothing and housing	D25, E11
Health care and social services	D25, E12
Special protection for children	D25, E10, C24
Education	D26,E13, E14
Participation in cultural life	D27, E15
Self-determination	E1, C1
Human treatment when detained or imprisoned	C10
Protection against debtor’s prison	C11
Protection against arbitrary expulsion of aliens	C13
Protection against advocacy of racial or religious hatred	C20
Protection of minority culture	C27

As it can be easily seen only several rights are recognized by the three documents. Why do you think it to be so? Are there any other rights that should have been recognized by all three documents? What rights would you add to the list and why? (Or you can as well propose excluding some rights from the list). Support your viewpoint with arguments.

7. Pretty many rights have been given to a person. They are fixed in an array of official documents from Constitutions of separate states to the Universal declarations of Human Rights. Still there are thousands of cases of human rights abuses. What are the main reasons for that? Why do people and governments turn a blind eye to human rights?

8. Prepare а talk show format and stage а program about human rights. Select а range of personalities to be interviewed, such as the High Commissioner, the Secretary-General, а victim of а human rights abuse, а member of а human rights monitoring group, а person inter­viewed by the Gallup Poll etc. In group decide any follow-up activities that you might wish to pursue, such as а letter-writing campaign, or fund-raising for а particular human rights program.

9. According to Freedom House (a Washington-based international NGO), freedom is possible only in democratic political systems in which the governments are accountable to their own people; the rule of law prevails; and freedom of expression, association, belief and respect for the rights of minorities and women are guaranteed. Would you share this point of view? Give your reasons.

10. You are to take part in a conference on human-rights violations. What proposals would you come with to change the situation for the better? How can human rights be protected more efficiently? What possible mechanisms might be used?

11. Write an essay on the topic: “It is not constitutions, but politics, that determine citizens' rights.”