“Are human rights universal and does it matter” “Are Human Rights universal and does it matter?” was explained and answered by Sir Stephen Sedley in the book “Ashes and Sparks”. Sir Stephen Sedley was born on 9th October 1939, now at the age of 74, his father; Bill Sedley (1910-1985), was one of the founders of the firm of lawyers Seifert and Sedley in 1940. Stephen, following in the footsteps of his father, graduated from Queens College Cambridge and then got called before the bar in 1964; he was appointed judge of the court of appeal of England and Wales during 1999-2011. He is now currently an honorary professor of law at Warwick University and the University of Wales and Cardiff, and a judicial visitor at University College, London. His
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He believes that unless human rights are available to everyone we cannot count them as human rights as the only aspect you have to fulfil to attain these rights is being born human but, as Stephen says we are around in a time where they become the property of those few people who are lucky enough to live in a society that recognises and enforces human rights.
He believes human rights are always changing and tend to be fixed to their own time and place, Stephen believes that universalism has to account for such change, he believes we should resist change in the human rights agenda on certain rights and adapt to others, for example; the inclusion of gender equality among the forbidden grounds of discrimination. Only recently has gender equality taken place, before it was considered absurd. Yet in other societies it is unheard of, these are one of the changes I believe Stephen was referring to and we should adapt to it, as it betters …show more content…
For example, in third world countries we still have a form of slave labour, yet in the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights it states there should no slavery. The right to life is a key principle of the Declaration yet in millions of places around the world we have people dying due to not being able to sustain their life through a lack of food or water. the right to a fair trial is a human right upon which developed countries pride themselves upon however an example of this infringement would be the captivity of prisoner in Guantanamo bay some of whom are being held without the hope of any fair trial.i support Stephen 's idea of having a horizontal consensus on human rights whereby rather than it being imposed on members they can choose to join. I believe this will strengthen universal ties and unite people from all walks of life. I also agree with Stephen when he says that human rights can get weakened when there is a strong player involved but I believe this should be corrected, making it impossible for anyone to weaken the core rights that every human is entitled
He believes that unless human rights are available to everyone we cannot count them as human rights as the only aspect you have to fulfil to attain these rights is being born human but, as Stephen says we are around in a time where they become the property of those few people who are lucky enough to live in a society that recognises and enforces human rights.
He believes human rights are always changing and tend to be fixed to their own time and place, Stephen believes that universalism has to account for such change, he believes we should resist change in the human rights agenda on certain rights and adapt to others, for example; the inclusion of gender equality among the forbidden grounds of discrimination. Only recently has gender equality taken place, before it was considered absurd. Yet in other societies it is unheard of, these are one of the changes I believe Stephen was referring to and we should adapt to it, as it betters …show more content…
For example, in third world countries we still have a form of slave labour, yet in the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights it states there should no slavery. The right to life is a key principle of the Declaration yet in millions of places around the world we have people dying due to not being able to sustain their life through a lack of food or water. the right to a fair trial is a human right upon which developed countries pride themselves upon however an example of this infringement would be the captivity of prisoner in Guantanamo bay some of whom are being held without the hope of any fair trial.i support Stephen 's idea of having a horizontal consensus on human rights whereby rather than it being imposed on members they can choose to join. I believe this will strengthen universal ties and unite people from all walks of life. I also agree with Stephen when he says that human rights can get weakened when there is a strong player involved but I believe this should be corrected, making it impossible for anyone to weaken the core rights that every human is entitled