Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines the complex issue of human rights within the context of contemporary globalization, a debate that has become one of the most challenging intellectual and political questions of our time. The study focuses on the contradiction between the universal discourse of human rights—which claims global applicability—and the cultural and political hegemonic practices exercised by major powers in the name of these values. This tension reflects the imposition of a single Western model that overlooks the diversity and particularities of other societies. The article aims to analyze the crisis of the Westerncentric foundation of human rights and to reveal how this concept has shifted from a purely human value to an ideological tool employed to serve political and cultural interests. Its significance lies in shedding light on the selective and politicized application of human rights and in emphasizing the need to reassess their philosophical foundations to ensure fairness and moral credibility. Adopting a critical analytical approach, the study traces the Western intellectual roots of human rights within Enlightenment philosophy and the social contract tradition. It then examines the transformation of the concept under globalization and analyzes its political and cultural instrumentalization. The findings show that globalization has not achieved justice or equality as often claimed; instead, it has deepened social and cultural disparities, while the universalist discourse of human rights is frequently used to legitimize Western cultural dominance. The article contributes a critical perspective that calls for an alternative humanistic framework grounded in intercultural dialogue and a balanced relationship between cultural particularity and universal ethical principles. Such a framework would help develop a genuinely moral and inclusive conception of human rights—one that transcends hegemonic tendencies and better reflects the diversity of human experience.
Institution: University of Technology Malaysia
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4416855234
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