ABSTRACT
In the debate over human rights, there is a theoretical split in perspective that falls largely along geographical lines. Those from the industrialized West have generally argued that human rights are universal; they belong to every individual, beyond culture and history. Those from the developing world have taken a cultural relativity perspective, claiming that no individual can be separated from his or her culture, and that one’s understanding of human rights should be defi ned according to and within one’s culture. Fields and Narr argue further that human rights cannot be separated from the “specifi c historical and geographical contexts” of any given setting (1992, 3). Further complicating the discussion is the status of the child. Does the child have human rights independent of the needs, desires and values of the parent? Or, does the child belong fi rst to the community and the family with rights fl owing only through those relationships?
