Universal Human Rights: A Comparative Study of the Charter of Medina and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Abstract

Islam often receives criticism, particularly from right-wing movements, sections of media, governments, and the wider community in the West, for its lack of respect for respect human rights. In order to dispel such common myths about Islam, this study compares the Charter of Medina and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in terms of basic human rights, civil and political rights, and economic and social human rights. It also analyses the contents, concepts and principles of the Medina Charter, highlights the opinions and translations of Orientalists regarding the Charter, and identifies mistakes and shortcomings in those translations. To achieve these objectives, this study adopts a qualitative approach to analyse the Medina Charter and the UDHR. Document analysis, content analysis and thematic analysis were undertaken. These analyses show that the Orientalists are not proficient in Arabic and, at times, they have even relied on controversial Arabic books such as Al-Aghani (The Book of Songs) to understand and interpret the Medina Charter. Therefore, Orientalists have encountered challenges when attempting to understand the subtleties of the Arabic language, thereby making errors when translating some of the words of the Charter into their own languages. The findings of the study also reveal that the Medina Charter could be used to establish universal legal frameworks that include both the individual and the tribe in order to achieve a level of political stability. The data analysis indicates that the Medina Charter considered the cultural and religious differences among people, unlike the Universal Declaration, which was drafted solely on the basis of Western thought. More importantly, the analysis shows that all the political and civil rights tenets stated in the UDHR were originally derived from the Medina Charter. This is indicative of the precedents set in the Sharia and their influence on the determination and preservation of human rights. Further, the data analysis reveals that the Sharia could be used to develop legal and policy mechanisms to protect all human rights of individuals, and that the rights relating to safety and social security in the UDHR in practice are less desirable than those in the Medina Charter.

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The research argues that the West can learn from Islam by knowing and understanding its approach to, and application of, human rights. This may enable Orientalists and Western- centric cultures to change their ill-informed stance. The study concluded that human rights embodied in the UDHR are less universal and overarching than those in the Sharia. Consequently, the reforms needed in the UDHR would benefit from the existing legislation in the Medina Charter that consider the cultural and religious differences in society. Moreover, the study demonstrated that various aspects of the UDHR are incompatible with Islamic law because the Medina Charter is more comprehensive in terms of human rights. To design novel laws that preserve universal human rights, law and policymaking bodies, specifically the United Nations, need to go beyond the predominantly Western framework and develop a more universal and inclusive human rights framework. In this study, a normative framework is developed based on the principles of Islamic law established by the Medina Charter that has the potential to suit all followers of different religions and all members of all races. Accordingly, the researcher believes that since the Medina Charter is more comprehensive and inclusive of human rights than the UDHR, which is recognised by many significant countries in the world, any future endeavour to develop a universal system of human rights should take the principles of the Medina Charter into consideration. In this study, two important documents, namely the Medina Charter and the UDHR, are analysed and compared to identify their similarities and differences and to determine the feasibility of developing a more universal human rights framework based on such similarities and differences.