A Local Response to the Global Human Rights Standard: The 'Ubuntu' Perspective on Human Dignity

Some African leaders have made the argument that the promotion of an international human rights standard is a strategy that is used and abused by hypocritical Western governments to justify their intervention into the affairs of African countries. The tacit objective behind this articulation is the desire to avoid an external evaluation or monitoring of the internal affairs of their countries. The leaders who complain the most about the hidden agenda behind the advocacy and promotion of human rights standards in Africa do not necessarily adhere to these same standards. Such leaders seem to be proposing that the notion of human rights is alien to Africa. If such an assumption is admitted and accepted, then the logical conclusion is that there are no indigenous notions of human rights within the African continent. This paper will argue that there are rich traditions on the African continent founded on the notion of human dignity and "humanness". What is true is that the current international human rights standards, beginning with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, were not developed through a global, broad-based consultation of the different values from around the world. Some analysts have defined the twenty-first century as the era of the "clash of civilisations". However, this can be offset by a "dialogue among civilisations", and there is an urgent need to articulate a supplementary universal declaration of human rights, duties and obligations based on values drawn from various cultures around the world.