This principle is based on the idea that all human beings are equally endowed with the same natural rights. In 1789 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was thus proclaimed. In contrast to the privileges of the Ancien Régime, the Revolution also established that the values of freedom, equality and fraternity apply uniformly to all. The Republic recognizes only citizens defined in an abstract manner, independently of all their personal identities. This republican universalism is the subject of a double challenge. On the one hand, countries intend to relativize or interpret, in the name of their own culture, principles such as gender equality. On the other hand, republican universalism is criticized as a theoretical principle that masks real inequalities. Thus, in France, claims of groups or “minorities” are affirmed in an Anglo-Saxon conception which builds the common good by reconciling the interests of the different communities.
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