Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Twisted rhetoric from Young PAP

Young PAP - To The Devotees of Western Democracy and Human Rights.
sgwatchdog saw this article highlighted in The Online Citizen. It is tiring to see yet another attempt to create a myth that human rights is a solely Western (or American) idea. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted by a group of people, including reps from China and Lebanon. Plenty of non-Western countries voted in favour of the UDHR during its adoption. Also, the US is one of the few prominent countries that has not ratified the key UN human rights conventions. So it is misleading to try to portray human rights advocates as pro-American or pro-West. The usage of the word "devotees" is also sad, as the author is trying to imply that human rights activists are trying to "convert" others to practice the "religion" of human rights. Rights and beliefs are not the same.

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