In What Sense Are Human Rights Universal ?

All current discrepancies for a universal application of human rights seem to depend on the predominance of some specific political interests. In my view, the causes are deeper. We must consider that the concept of “human” entailed by UN 1948 Declaration is rooted in the modern idea of individuus (individual) according to which (1) what mainly characterizes human nature is will, and (2) both citizens and the state are individuals: the former are concrete and weaker, while the latter is abstract and stronger. In such conditions the clash between the two is inevitable. Furthermore, we have to take into account the contemporary process of “fluidization” affecting not only social and material borders, but also many conceptual ones. The consequent fragmentation of individual’s identity into a multitude of changing desires – in essence, the reduction of individuality to spontaneity – is responsible, together with globalization, for the increasing amount of rights claiming nowadays for legal protection.