Rooted in culture.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations is a document that comes out of Western European cultural traditions. Because of this, it is sometimes attacked by people from other backgrounds as being alien to their philosophies of life. At the time the Declaration was adopted, four Muslim countries decided not to vote on it in the General Assembly. They had a problem with the guarantee of religious freedom. The holy book of Islam, the Koran, teaches that the Muslim religion is the only true religion that Muslims can believe in. People from Asian cultures have difficulties with many human rights guarantees. That's because their cultural tradition stresses that the rights of the community as a whole are more important than those of individuals. Guarantees of personal freedoms run counter to most Asian philosophies. And, a communist might strongly disagree with the right to own property.