Let us listen to Jose W. Diokno. True, a hungry man does not have much freedom of choice. But equally true, when a well fed man does not have freedom of choice, he cannot protect himself against going hungry. The interdependence of human rights is also embodied in international instruments. One example is the Declaration on the Right to Development which was adopted by the General Assembly of the U.N. on December 4, 1986.
All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated.
The international community must treat human rights globally in fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis. The principles of universality and indivisibility, however, are not without critics. Critics are either governments or individuals. They say that human rights are Western and bourgeois-liberal constructs reflecting a Western world view, born out of European political history and imperialism. They also say that human rights are relative, determined by the political and economic circumstance of each country.