American International Journal of Social Science

The 48-Version of Human Rights Is it Adequate as a Moral Guide for Challenges of the 21st Century?
Sigurd N. Skirbekk

Necessity of critique
There are several reasons why contemporary intellectuals should subject the UN Declaration of Human Rights to a critical analysis. I shall here take up three issues which I think ought to be discussed more widely: First, the question of what philosophical status the Human Rights Declaration can be said to have. The answer to this question is of importance when we discuss the moral authority of the Declaration and to what extent it can be justified to criticise the Declaration. Second: I shall raise the question of possible political consequences of the Declaration, past, present and in the near future, with regard to some vital measures of functionality and dysfunctionality; which is not the same as manifest intentions. Third, I shall discuss what could be regarded as alternatives to the UN Declaration of 1948, if we find it inadequate as a moral guide to contemporary and future challenges facing humanity in this century.

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