John Donnelly Chapter 6 Summary

In chapters 5 and 6 his book, Donnelly talks about where he believes human rights come from and in what sense they are universal. Donnelly reviews early African, Greek, Asian, and medieval European societies to see if claims that these societies had human rights. He contends that none of them had human rights, but most of them had some concept of human dignity, although often restricted to certain humans, that their laws sought to protect or enforce. He argues that the idea of having innate rights because of one's humanity does not occur until the French and American Revolutions, where those ideas are invoked in the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Donnelly uses these examples to support his larger argument

He argues that human rights are universal at the level of concept, but not, nor should they be, at the level of implementation. I think this ties in very well with his claim that no specific culture had human rights as a result of that culture, but most cultures had some concepts that tied into human rights. He has already established in chapter 6 that most cultures had some concepts that relate to human rights, and now he expands to the present to claim that all cutlures embrace human rights at the concept level. I really enjoy this formulation of human rights. I think we can all agree that people have a right to live, but there are clear disagreements on how to protect that right. It is the implementation of rights that differentiates us, not concept. I also agree with Donnelly that this difference in implementation is a good thing. Cultures are different enough to require flexibility in how we protect human rights. We also don't need powerful states like the U.S. telling people how to implement rights, as enforcing Western ideals upon international states has often gone poorly. Some amount of cultural sensitivity must be allowed, although as Donnelly later argues, we must also be prepared to draw the line. I agree with this middle ground argument, but I would appreciate more examples to see specifically where Donnelly is falling on which implementations are satisfactory and which are