Human rights are complex and contested. The origins of modern
human rights lie in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR), an international social contract established to prevent a
recurrence of “barbarous acts” (UN, 1948), notably the genocide of
the Holocaust, by asserting the equality of human dignity and its
expression in universal human rights. The UDHR thus redefines
the relationship between the citizen and the state, by limiting the
autonomy of the state through its obligations to provide, protect
and promote the human rights of individuals. Human rights thus
proclaim and construct “the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family” (UN, 1948).
The complexity and contested nature of human rights lie in their
multi-dimensionality. For example, Douzinas (2007) identifies six
ways in which human rights are used: as a legal category, as a
source of moral claims, a field in jurisprudence, an ideology, an
expression of individual desire and a way of resisting power and
oppression. Klug (2000) speaks of human rights as consisting of
law, philosophy and (emancipatory) political action. From a
sociological perspective, complexity and contestation lie in the fact,
among others, that human rights are statements of abstract policy
principles which require interpretation and implementation.
Interpretation and implementation, however, are always socially,
historically and politically contextual and relational.
Universality, relativism and communitarianism are traditionally
regarded as the three different ways in which human rights have
been interpreted. Universality is embedded in the human rights
system, as the new ‘social contract’ (Cassese, 1990; Bobbio,