Human Rights between Theory and Practice
The world has certainly not been devoid of human rights abuses since the signing of the UHDR or any related documents.


As Donnelly noted, in a survey of a number of countries (excluding the most blatant violators) and their human rights performances,
Many states in the post-Cold War world include respect for internationally recognized human rights as part of their national self-images and as an objective in their foreign policies. Few, however, make more than occasional, modest sacrifices of other foreign policy interests in the name of human rights.

In the words of Freeman, “Human-rights declarations are cheap, whereas human-rights implementation is rather expensive.”

The divide between theory and practice is well-known and certainly does not need to be documented in detail here. The details of violations of human rights are presented by several organizations (such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International) and independent authors. The recent events and plight of Abu Ghuraib, Guantanamo and “extraordinary rendition” (in which European states took an active part) demonstrate that even the most vocal supporters of human rights are willing to violate and abuse the concept when needed. The reality, though, is that those are simply the tip of the iceberg in a long, inglorious history of human rights violations throughout the world.


Human rights has been abused in the following manners:
(1)    Human rights abuses—some quite gross—are regularly overlooked when it is one’s allies and partners involved in such abuses. Once again, there is no need to give numerous examples of this nature. Perhaps the Shah of Iran’s relationship with the United States is enough of an example.

(2) Human rights is also used as a political tool against one’s enemies. Enemies are often threatened with economic sanctions in the name of human rights violations. Indeed, war can also be declared in the name of human rights violations.  Such war is even justified when there is obviously other motivations for such a war. James Turner Johnson is perhaps the leading expert and theoretician of the Western concept of a “just war.” Yet he completely justifies going to the war in the name of human rights violations even though other, not so legitimate, motivations are also part and parcel of the purpose behind the war. In fact, this is the gist of his argument in The War to Oust Saddam Hussein: Just War and the New Face of Conflict wherein he justifies the invasion of Iraq on the basis that part of its justification is actually justifiable, although other motivations are not. Previously, Bricmont was quoted wherein he critiques a work entitled A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq, which defended the war on Iraq on the basis of human rights regardless of the fact that the war violated international law.

In general, the abuse of a principle is not necessarily evidence that the principle itself is faulty. This is true unless there is something intrinsic within the principle that leads to its abuse. In this author’s view, such is the case with human rights abuses. The intrinsic failure of human rights, as shall be demonstrated in the next chapter, is that it is not based on anything “substantial.” It is not surprising, then, to see a principle abused when, in reality, that principle has a very weak moral or logical foundation to support it. In such a case, it should even be expected that people will put other priorities above that principle and abuse it whenever necessary or needed. Sadly, such has been the history of the application of human rights in many cases.


Furthermore, theoretically speaking, the great divide between the theory and the practice of human rights is problematic as it:
(a) Demonstrates that human rights as a whole is more utopian than its proponents wants one to believe and as presented currently are neither practical nor feasible.

(b) Demonstrates that there may be other goals that are more important than human rights, such as goals of national security and so forth. Actually, this fact seems to be fairly well accepted among the international community. It was probably the American statesman George Kennan who expressed this reality the best. He is famous for his statement in a 1948 State Department classified document, “We have about 50 percent of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3 percent of the world’s population. Our real task in the coming period is… to maintain this position of disparity… We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction… We should cease to talk about vague and… unreal objectives such as human rights…lW]e are going to have to deal in straight power concepts.” If national security, economic security or other national goals can triumph human rights, one must then also question if one’s submission to God (one’s internal security) can also triumph human rights.

(c) Finally, the inconsistency between word and deed does—rightfully so—make one question the entire human rights project. Muslims, in particular, have the right to be particularly wary about such beautiful words coming from the “West” while the reality behind them may be something very different. Baderin quotes an Egyptian critic of the international human rights movement, Sayf al-Dawla, who rejected the UDHR exactly on this basis.  No less a political theorist as Samuel Huntington recognizes this fundamental issue with the human rights agenda.


He wrote,
Non-westerners… do not hesitate to point to the gaps between Western principle and Western action. Hypocrisy, double standards, and ‘but nots’ are the price of universalist pretensions. Democracy is promoted but not if it brings Islamic fundamentalists to power, nonproliferation is preached for Iran and Iraq but not for Israel; … human rights are an issue with China but not with Saudi Arabia;… Double standards in practice are the unavoidable price of universal standards of principle.

Actually, the realization of the existence of a double standard reached Muslim states very early in the modern history of human rights.


Bricmont highlights the following example,
Or consider Article 13 of the Declaration, which ensures the right to leave one’s own country. During the final stages of the Cold War, the United States was unflinching in its demand that Soviet Jews be allowed to leave their country, mainly to emigrate to Israel (an emigration that ran into Soviet objections concerning the cost to the state of having educated the candidates for emigration). But the same Article 13 also guarantees the right of return to your country of origin. The day after ratification of the Declaration, the United Nations adopted Resolution 194, which gave Palestinians driven from their territories the right to return home (or else to receive compensation). Everyone knows perfectly well that this return will never take place without a profound shake-up in the world relationship of forces. On the other hand, the Israeli settlers who were obliged to leave the Gaza strip colonies they had illegally occupied received an average of a quarter of a million dollars per family in compensation.

Worse than anything, this dichotomy between practice and theory concerning human rights does not stop at national governments. Unfortunately, human rights organizations themselves are very selective about what they chose to object to, with respect to the religion of Islam in particular  but even more generally with respect to egregious violations of human rights.


This has led Bricmont to lament,
In recent decades, there has been a proliferation of organizations, essentially based in rich countries, watching and denouncing violations of human rights in poor countries. Whenever I happen to discuss with representatives of these organizations why they do not denounce military aggressions, for example in Iraq, the answer is roughly that this is not their field and that they can’t do everything. They are concerned with human rights, period. That response would be defensible if the discourse of these organizations had not become hegemonic to a point that scarcely any other viewpoint, for example the defense of national sovereignty, can get a hearing. Moreover, they push their own priority to the point of being strictly neutral concerning aggressive wars, while denouncing the violations of human rights brought about by those wars—that is, they act as if there were no necessary link between the two. After all, those organizations do not refrain from denouncing those who are responsible for violating human rights—why then not include in that denunciation those who start wars?

The simple point is this: Even those countries that are the most vocal about implementing and believing in human rights have demonstrated time and again that they are willing to violate this sacred belief whenever and wherever convenient—not just whenever and wherever necessary. These countries include the United States as well as many, if not all, European countries (although the European countries are still much more covert than the US in this field). This is not to say that those countries do not have an overall decent record of respecting human rights. However, it does demonstrate that even these countries, from which the human rights beliefs and movements were born, believe in and recognize that there are other things that are more important than human rights. In their particular cases, these other things include both national security and the economic well-being of their nation.

Albeit the West has, for the most part, turned its back on religion, what could be a response from them to the following statement: “Like you envision national security and economic well-being to be more important than human rights, I view my religion and submitting to God as more important than human rights. Thus, I will adhere to human rights doctrine as long as and only if it does not violate what I believe to be part of my submission to my Lord and Creator?” Granted, they may argue that one cannot compare “religion” to national security—perhaps, the same could not be said for economic well-being. However, for the Muslim or the Muslim community that believes in God, they will say that their belief and religion is more important than national security and economic well-being. Many a Muslim would prefer to be oppressed and poor rather than have to compromise or violate any of the foundations of his faith. Certainly someone coming from a human rights perspective should be willing to accept the other’s “freedom” to put his religion first in his own life.