I. The Dynamic Nature of Human Rights
The human society is constantly adjusted by its billions of people to reach a balance between human rights on one hand and the rule by law and ethics codes on the other hand. Human rights are the rights of individuals to do what the individuals may want to do. Law states that one cannot do this, one cannot do that, and so on, restricting what individuals may want to do in a society. Ethics codes are actually doing the same thing in restricting what individuals may want to do. In Western World, the basic codes are in ten "shall not do's." In Oriental Countries, the codes are often the Confucius' eight virtues of "shall do's." Since the establishment of the republics in the Orient, the first of the eight virtues has been changed from "You shall be loyal to the emperor and the country" to "You shall be loyal to your country." The point is when the society changes, the restrictions change with it and so is the balance and thus also the content of human rights. In other words, human rights do not exist in absolute terms. When the US Bill of Rights was composed, the composers owned large number of Negro slaves, which had not diminished the value of the bill that was written. As the American society changed, so did the content of human rights. The World largely evolved through two more or less separate paths until about 200 years ago when the Western powers came to the Orient. Two separate human societies have reached different stages of historical developments which may or may not eventually merge into one (something no one can really predict). Even if they do, it is hard to predict what the society will be like by then, in terms of "shall do's" and "shall not do's." Before that happens, one cannot categorically reject the idea that different societies at different stages of history cannot have different sets of human rights. The American human rights are also still changing. One used to be able to burn any kind of automobile fuel. The selection of automobile fuel was based largely on its cost and combustion efficiency. Now and in the future, one can only burn certain kinds of automobile fuel in such a way that the exhaust gases will meet the existing pollution standards. New laws have been written and so are new ethics codes. The balance between "One shall do" and "One shall not do" will also change, and so goes the content of human rights. In an affluent society like
