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HERBERT HANREICH impossible task to undertake since we cannot possibly know what exactly is to be identified when referring to the vague term dignity". But what seems to be at first sight a terminological weakness finally turns out to be its normative strength: dignity must not be defined. It is my contention that a conclusive foundation of human rights must be able to demonstrate its inconclusiveness in principle. But first I shall briefly discuss two Western-critical models of human rights developed in regional preparatory meetings for the World Conference of Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993. II. COLONIZING HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE NAME OF COLLECTIVITIES Countries and cultures have claimed through their leaders that the UDHR is a Western-influenced creation that needs to be counterbalanced by somehow broader perspectives. Two powerful alternatives to the ‘westernized’ human rights concept have been advanced in the early 1990s: Islam? and (Confucian) East-Asian authoritarianism‘; there are others. We have official documents, written manifestations of what governments of those regions or faiths hold as human rights as they target existing ‘Western’ versions’. They are, as I wish to demonstrate, politically and philosophically highly problematic because of an awry collusion of nature and culture. Islam and human rights Islamic governments insist on their own human rights model. Central for the understanding of their perspective is the so-called Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (CDHR)®, adopted in Cairo in 1990 by the Organisation of Islamic Other religions could also be apt candidates to be put under critical scrutiny with respect to human rights. Sam Harris, The End of Faith, New York, NY, Norton, 2004, 158, has beautifully described how liberal rights such as homosexuality or porn consumption have been miraculously turned by U.S. Christian leaders into ‘abominable sins’ that deserve to be publicly prosecuted. Otfried Hoeffe’s newspaper article on Konfuzius, der Koran und die Gerechtigkeit, in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (24 August 2015), deals with a similar topic. However, it is a rather academic, less critical article envisaging a world that could share common values from various cultures. 5 Historically, the UNDHR is not a ‘Western’ version. It has been adopted by all UN member states in 1948 save a few abstentions. I shall refer to its revised successor document of 2020 below. + 274 +
