About the construction of a universal legislation of human rights

Abstract

This article describes two fundamental ideological theories in the defense of ruling and application of human rights legislation: the universalism and relativism. Parting from this description, it is possible to defend the universalism doctrine as its fundament is a review of the concept of culture that, different from the relativists and multiculturalists, is understood as communicative and balanced of the differences. It should be mentioned, that this article adopts the thesis that cultures are symbolic complexes which constitute an archive in which natives of a society interpret the physical world, create reason to social relations that they are part of, and create subjective conditions of interaction with other societies. The interpretation and communication, therefore, are two elements inherent of cultural systems and they are essential to intercultural relations. According to this point of view, the legal culture of every society, i.e. the notions of the meanings of what is illegal or legal cease conditions of intercommunication which make possible dialo- gs and exchange of experiences about the notions of what is fair and unfair, which can give support to the building of an universal legislation of human rights.