UNIVERSALITY AND CUTURAL RELATIVISM OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIS-A-VIS THE LGBT RIGHTS IN NIGERIA

Human Rights are commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because he or she is a human being. Right from the evolutionary point of Human Rights, there have been arguments as to its natural existence, also its applicability across places and spaces within the context of their socio-cultural, political, and economic realities. Thus, the discourse of the Universalism and Cultural Relativism of human rights is one of great controversy in both domestic and international levels. Essentially, most if not all the Human Rights instrument provide that Human Rights are Universal, for instance the provisions of the UDHR1 preamble, which declares itself a ‘standard of achievement for all people’. The cultural relativist argue that human rights or at least certain human rights are a result of Western influence, and as such should not be imposed on other cultures, it promotes the tolerance of other cultures and challenges the universality of human rights. With respect to the subject of gay rights which has provoked a lot of outburst from Africans and the Westerners on its implementation and practice universally. While many Africans considerLGBT as immoral to their culture, the Westerners consider it as part of human rights. This long essay would attempt to distinguish between the universalism and cultural relativism of human rights, and within the context of LGBT rights in Nigeria as a focus, its legislation; Prohibition and Punishment of LGBT practice, the implication of such in the society, noting that nowhere in sight is the political consensus on LGBT rights equating with human rights in Nigeria