Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law Volume 12 | Issue 1 Article 10 2006 Universal Human Rights: A Generational History Eric Engle Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/annlsurvey Part of the Human Rights Law Commons Recommended Citation Engle, Eric (2006) "Universal Human Rights: A Generational History," Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law: Vol. 12: Iss. 1, Article 10. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/annlsurvey/vol12/iss1/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Academic Journals at GGU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law by an authorized administrator of GGU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Engle: Universal Human Rights UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS: A GENERATIONAL HISTORY ERIC ENGLE· Human rights are universal. Not in the sense of being the same positive laws, at all times and places, but rather as being aspirational goals, at all times and places, and also as containing core values which are indeed universal, such as the right to life (no irrational deprivation of life). His tories of human rights usually propose that the concept has evolved through at least three separate historical waves. This historical account, while roughly accurate, must be clarified as a theoretical construction which corresponds only partially to the historical reality: the rights of women and of non-white persons, in fact, arose relatively late in history. With that qualification, however, the historical description is roughly accurate, and also explains why we can speak of human rights as "uni versal" in a meaningful sense.