ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Islamic Views On Human Rights: Viewpoints of Iranian Scholars Human Rights: The Clashes Between Individual And Collective Rights Dr Husayn Salimi What are the limitations and the borderlines for human rights? How far and by what criteria do social rights and welfare limit man’s rights and freedoms? This is a question of great significance, which without answering, one cannot reach a universal hypothesis on human rights.

Before we embark on answering the question, which is the main concern of this article, it is worth mentioning that those who generally propose questions of this sort tend to mar human rights. The bulk of work written on this issue is meant to find ways either to threaten human rights or to flinch them.

The best example in this regard is the theory of Stalinist Marxists on human rights, which tends to invalidate the theoretical foundations of human rights and to limit them by means of giving credence to social rights. It cannot be disputed that many of these theoreticians seek to vindicate the atrocities of Marxist states and their violation of human rights by reinforcing the general social welfare.

At this point I deem it necessary to cast a brief glance on this viewpoint so as to determine that our discussion on the limitations of human rights and the relationship between individual and collective rights is totally separate from other views like those of the Marxists.

From the viewpoint of orthodox Marxists, one has to bear in mind a few hypotheses when discussing human rights: Social rights have priority over individual rights and social expedience and the expedience of the progressive class has priority over the rights and welfare of each individual. Human rights are the ideology and power tool of international capitalists who wish to extend their powers to every part of the globe. Human rights justify the interests of the superior classes of the society.

Based on these hypotheses, orthodox Marxists have sought to analyse human rights, intimating various conditions and limitations for them.[^1] Whenever any international organisation remonstrated against the violation of human rights in the Soviet Union or any eastern bloc country, their writers, politicians and thinkers discussed human rights in the light of hypotheses noted above.