Essay on Human Rights

These principles are now referred to as human rights. Human rights are based on equity and equality, fairness, respect and dignity. Every human being is obliged to follow them. These rights sometimes are amended if found to be misused although they can’t be done away. They do not base on one gender, but most of the time when someone hears of human rights being mentioned, he or she tend to think that these rights are only given to men which tends to be incorrect. They serve women towards achieving equality. These three categories are significant in understanding the feminist perspectives on human rights (Peters & Wolper, 2018). Radical feminism; a perspective where feminism advocates for reordering of the society where male leadership has dominated and even if possible men are disregarded from all economic and social roles (Daly, 2016).

Relating the theory to what feminists perceive on human rights, these feminists seem angered by men because they are not are equally treated but oppressed men hence reacting has to defend themselves and this is what brings conflicts between men and women. Cultural feminism, on the other hand, deals with the nature and essence of a female in the society. Countries which are democratic have many rights which favour its citizens, but those countries which rule through dictatorship tend to go against most of the human rights. Countries which protect and value their citizen also have many rights which help in respecting the dignity of their people. Western countries, for example, have more rights favouring their citizens unlike in the African and Asian countries.

These rights go hand in hand with freedoms, and that is why most people confuse them. Religion also influences the rights set in different countries because some of the rights are affected by the religion. The theoretical approaches still aim at explaining why and how the human rights are developed as this helps in bringing out the accurate perception that they have. The proposals comprise the notion that people from any society accept rules from persuasive authority in give-and-take for economic advantage and security. The two main theories that discuss the issue of human rights are the interest theory and the will theory. Some other theories which ease the understanding of the perception which includes the natural law theories, social contract theory, reciprocity theory and the biological theory.

These theories expound on the issues regarding human rights. Feminists then find the theory not favouring the women because in most cases their wills may not be covered as that of men although it generalises on the wishes. Finnis (2011) articulated that Natural Law Theories were divided into two; Natural right and natural law whereby the two theories base their arguments human rights on innate morals, biological order or religion. The natural right also known as natural justice was founded by Socrates and his heirs Aristotle and Plato. Stoic is what generally attributed to the development of the two laws to becoming one. These laws have been applied in philosophies of different philosophers like Richard Hooker, Thomas Aquinas, John Luke, Hugo Grotius and Thomas Aquinas.

Feminists according to this they tend to feel that the rights being discussed or mention are upholding the rights of men. This is because women are very sympathetic yet the theory bases itself on empathy which has a different meaning. Even though the theories discussed above help in understanding the perception feminists have; that human rights primarily uphold the rights of men, some historical philosophers have criticised the theoris and mostly criticised the idea of natural rights. The philosophers in the early days include Karl Marx, Jeremy Bentham, Friedrich Nietzsche and Edmund Burke while to the contemporary critics, Alasdair MacIntyre is best known. For instance, Karl Marx who is believed to be the father of Marxism; for him, concepts of justice and liberal rights are premised on the idea that every individual deserves protection from other human beings and that is why Karl Marx argues that liberal rights are there to protect human beings from threats (Marx, 2000).