Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
PhD., Department of International Relations, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
2
PhD., Department of Political Science, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
10.22081/phlq.2025.71694.1113
Abstract
This study examines the dominant human rights paradigm in the international system as an ideology, a political‑social construct, and a function of global political economy. The central question addressed is how the prevailing human rights discourse in the international arena can be analyzed as an ideological and civilizational discourse, and what capacities exist within cultural‑Eastern counter‑discourses to challenge it. Employing the theoretical and methodological framework of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and semiotics, along with social constructivism and the historical sociology of international relations, the research analyzes the ways in which counter‑discourses emerging from the cultural East are represented and articulated. Within this framework, human rights are conceptualized as an ideology with two interrelated dimensions: an identity‑based dimension and a power‑based dimension. On the one hand, this ideology is rooted in a Western civilizational identity; on the other hand, it shapes distinct configurations of power relations at the global level. It is understood as the outcome of political‑social processes that take shape within the broader context of the global political economy. Accordingly, human rights are analyzed as an ideological discourse. Like other discourses, the dominant human rights discourse in
the international sphere is constructed through identity‑power relations. In a global environment characterized by contending narratives, the dominant human rights stream seeks to position its own narrative as the hegemonic one. Issues such as democracy and human rights have become particularly complex and contested in the post‑Cold War order. Internationally, human rights are often defined through Western–Eastern boundary‑making and grounded in Western concepts such as individualism, rationality, and liberalism. From a critical perspective—particularly in relation to Western identities and power structures—this discourse is seen as a mechanism for producing and reproducing forms of dominance. In this context, analyzing human rights as an ideological and civilizational phenomenon, especially from the perspective of non‑Western civilizations, cultures, and traditions, offers an opportunity to reconstruct and articulate alternative counter‑discourses.
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