ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to defend the project of universal human rights, in all their dimensions – economic, social and cultural, as well as civil and political – against two kinds of ‘culturalist’ challenge. One, which tends to be identified with non-Western sources, is directed against the individualist foundation of the human rights project in general, and the so-called ‘freedom’ rights of the civil and political rights agenda in particular. The other, identified more with the West, and its neo-liberal economic doctrines, is directed against the agenda of economic and social rights, and their place in the human rights canon. Both challenges raise important considerations, which require us to take care in how the case for universal human rights is presented; this chapter argues, however, that both need to be resisted if the integrity of the human rights agenda is to be preserved. The chapter will conclude by showing how both types of objection have been advanced since the idea of human rights first attained currency in the 18th century; it will argue that they represent ongoing ideological divisions within societies as much as between them.
