With the ICC issuing two warrants for Taliban officials, we must measure our excitement at the promise of justice and instead prepare for disappointment (Human Rights Watch, 2025). There have been more failures than victories over Human Rights violations due to the lack of legitimacy and enforcement of the ICC. The idea of “Human Rights” did not transpire out of thin air with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, rather the core principles and ethics behind the legal concept are ingrained into humanity’s collective unconscious. Because of this, I argue that the concept of human rights holds more authority when discussed in a moral and ethical manner, as opposed to a legal concept. This is because when human rights are thought about in a moral fashion, it gives the individual a sense of responsibility to their own community, which is a foundational aspect to the promotion of human rights.
Enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke, were able to recognize the inefficiency of government when it comes to morality principles. He wrote, “The care of souls cannot belong to the civil magistrate,” and urged the importance of individuals having a moral and spiritual outlet that is separate from the state (Locke, 1685). However, due to new progressive ideas and the exposure of the corruption of the Church, the “state” replaced the authority of the Church and became the seat of power. Government then took the role of the Church, along with the jurisdiction over morals and values. However, governments tend to fail to acknowledge diversity of thought, belief, or religion, leaving laws surrounding morality hard to enforce and even more difficult to promote.
By returning to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we can observe its errors and proclamations surrounding Human Rights. The two philosophers who were a part of the team that drafted the declaration , P.C. Chang and Charles Malik, failed to acknowledge the most unique aspect of being human: community. Malik “stressed the centrality of the individual human” and “endorsed religious ecumenism” (Roth, 2023). By focusing on the individual, human rights are thought about in a selfish way in the fact that only certain people can possess them. Individuality and selfishness are in direct opposition to the moral principles surrounding human rights such as empathy and selflessness. The focus on the individual, leads the UDHR to ignore the universal principle of human rights, making the struggle for them isolated and therefore weaker. Furthermore, the promotion of religious ecumenism only focuses on Christian religious groups, therefore alienating much of the world and “Westernizing” the concept of human rights. It is easy to reason why those who don’t hold Chrisitian beliefs feel that the UDHR suppresses their culture and promotes others’. These two concepts that build the foundation for the UDHR make it laughable for the “not Western” world, because it was not created for them. Therefore, the legality behind human rights is arbitrary and disrespected because these principles were only created with half of the world in mind.
If we conceptualize human rights as something we can promote within our communities, then communities will grow stronger along with the concept of human rights. By following moral and ethical guidelines that are applicable to people’s different communities, beliefs, and religions, individuals will feel represented and empowered. A study that compared and contrasted the Qurʾan and UDHR found that the UDHR fails to “preserve communities' rights and freedoms” and “achieve human dignity” (Abu Alhaj, 2023). Because the battle for human rights is a universal struggle, the abandonment of community harms the cause greatly. However, if individuals can set out to live their lives in adherence to a “moral code”, communities will be more harmonious and human rights will be promoted. By putting your belief and hope into the people around you as opposed to the abstract concept of the “state”, you will live your life for others and serve them in a selfless manner. By trusting the government to do the hard work for you, you reject responsibility where you could take action. A founding principle behind the idea of human rights is selflessness, and by living for others, you, as an individual. can promote and endorse human rights as a whole.
In our modern era, individuals who feel unheard by their government favor isolation and pessimism. I argue that to combat this, we must rebuild our communities. By living for others and promoting empathy, not only will individuals benefit on a personal level, so will the foundation for human rights. We can each adopt our own moral code to govern the way in which we live our lives for the betterment of our community and society as a whole. If we each change our daily habits to be more selfless, we can grow our communities’ mindsets to become more empathetic. When we turn on the news and see the destruction that happens in our world our first thoughts will become “what can I do about this” not, “that’s unfortunate.” We must all care about each other, because many times our governments do not care about us. When the state fails to answer the call, we, as a people, must pick up the phone.
Abu Alhaj, Thabet Ahmad Abdallah. “Intellectual Rights in the Light of the Qurʾan and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Al-Bayan Journal of Quran and Hadith Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, Leiden | Boston: Brill, 2023, pp. 54–78, doi:10.1163/22321969-20230125.
Human Rights Watch. "Afghanistan: ICC Prosecutor Seeks Gender Persecution Charges." Human Rights Watch, 23 Jan. 2025, www.hrw.org/news/2025/01/23/afghanistan-icc-prosecutor-seeks-gender-persecution-charges.
Locke, John. A Letter Concerning Toleration. Edited by Ian Shapiro, Yale University Press, 2003
Roth, Hans Ingvar. “P.C. Chang and Charles Malik: The Two Philosophers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 4, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023, pp. 545–67, doi:10.1353/hrq.2023.a910487.
Abigail Radcliff is a student at The University of Michigan.
