Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 1 ] :
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow, based on your understanding of the passage :
At every stage of history, voices of protest against oppression have been heard; in every age, visions of human liberation have also been eclipsed. As we moved toward modern times, these voices and visions have been translated into programs of social action, and at times incorporated into the constitutions of states. Yet conflicts, wars and despotic regimes have periodically crushed the very foundations of rights acquired across the centuries, or replaced old conceptions with new approaches to rights. The aftermaths of the world wars and more recently of the cold war witnessed new hopes for the advancement of historically competing visions of rights. From the growing prominence of groups like Amnesty International, forums like the International Women's Conference, and debates over such issues as humanitarian intervention, it is evident that human rights will play a critical role in this new era of world politics. Yet post-cold war era upheavals also demonstrate how divided we remain over what constitutes basic human rights. One important division - highlighted in growing fundamentalist challenges to Western institutions - is between religious and secular views of rights. Thus, some religious leaders claim that their respective holy scriptures contain the fundamental universal principles of morality and duties for guiding all human interaction. Against such beliefs, liberals and socialists have maintained that the concept of human rights is secular by definition and should not be subject to claims based on divine revelation. Liberals and socialists, however, also remain deeply divided over the nature of human rights. Liberals place great emphasis on private property rights, equality before the law and political liberty. Socialists (or progressive thinkers) stress economic equality as a precondition for political freedom and legal equity. To further complicate that debate, prevailing interpretations of liberalism and socialism have been challenged by movements complaining of exclusion from their respective universal rights agendas. Such appeals by women, gays and ethnic groups, however are justified largely by arguments drawn from the liberal and socialist human rights traditions.
