Legal Principles of a New World Governance

The setting up of the United Nations Human Rights Council with a responsibility for promoting universal human rights at this crucial moment in human history must be appreciated as long as it will manage to facilitate dialogue and in the process breaking the strong bonds of Western hegemonic monologue and cultural imperialism.

The current universalism is not a product of democracy and consensus, but was largely created through conquest and violence. The main crisis in the current human rights regime is that it has taken the form of Euro-American neo-liberalism masquerading as universalism, imposing its core values across the world as global values, and inevitably provoking contestations and resistance. Universalism should take the form of an achievement of progressive human efforts rather than a product of conquest and domination.

As the human globe reconstitute itself into a ‘global village,’ the emphasis on individual rights is no longer adequate and sufficient as the basis of peaceful human co-existence for this extended global family. The image of the human globe as a ‘village’ raises the question of the importance of communal rights if this village is to be habitable. It also raises the issue of values to underpin life in this village.

This village should be governed by the spirit of ubuntu which emphasises interdependence of human beings. Under ubuntu there is space for the subaltern to survive. Ubuntu emphasises the importance of empathy, sharing and cooperation.

Documents

Giving Africa Voice within Global Governance
EN 30p.