Two prevailing ＂traditional＂ notions of human rights also cause the current skeptical mood concerning human rights. Either human rights are seen in a morally exaggerated way as ＂trump cards＂ in political negotiati...Two prevailing ＂traditional＂ notions of human rights also cause the current skeptical mood concerning human rights. Either human rights are seen in a morally exaggerated way as ＂trump cards＂ in political negotiations, or they are pruned back to a purely juridical level, absorbed into legal instances that accord them at most the rank of constitutional rights. In contrast to this, the author defends a political conception of human rights that overcomes the problems besetting both conceptions, but without having to sacrifice their critical, normative content or a realistic role for human rights in international politics. A political conception of human rights assumes, the author argues firstly, that human rights grow out of concrete experiences of injustice and are the product of political struggles. Human rights are, secondly, placeholders for the public thematization of oppression, humiliation, marginalization, and despotism. A third characteristic feature of a political conception of human rights is that human rights raise claims to a rule system that permits access to the freedoms and resources formulated by human rights. And finally, the obligations imposed by human rights are not duties of assistance but institutional duties to realize the conditions for exercising human rights. Human rights, the author concludes, can be ＂used＂ by any person to criticize existing ordering structures and can be activated for political purposes directed to the common good.展开更多
In this study, I show that human fights are historical projects. They are legal inventions and institutional structures and respond to historical injustices and serious atrocities suffered by people, or which threaten...In this study, I show that human fights are historical projects. They are legal inventions and institutional structures and respond to historical injustices and serious atrocities suffered by people, or which threaten them. It is useful therefore to first distinguish, both historically and systematically, different conceptions of human fights from a concept of human fights. I will distinguish three conceptions： national, international and transnational. Included in national conceptions are the human fights declarations of North America （1776） and France （1789）. The starting event of the international conception is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations after the Second World War in 1948. And it can be argued that a transnational conception of human fights that better fits the globalised world and the already global developments in intemational law and governance is needed.展开更多
文摘Two prevailing ＂traditional＂ notions of human rights also cause the current skeptical mood concerning human rights. Either human rights are seen in a morally exaggerated way as ＂trump cards＂ in political negotiations, or they are pruned back to a purely juridical level, absorbed into legal instances that accord them at most the rank of constitutional rights. In contrast to this, the author defends a political conception of human rights that overcomes the problems besetting both conceptions, but without having to sacrifice their critical, normative content or a realistic role for human rights in international politics. A political conception of human rights assumes, the author argues firstly, that human rights grow out of concrete experiences of injustice and are the product of political struggles. Human rights are, secondly, placeholders for the public thematization of oppression, humiliation, marginalization, and despotism. A third characteristic feature of a political conception of human rights is that human rights raise claims to a rule system that permits access to the freedoms and resources formulated by human rights. And finally, the obligations imposed by human rights are not duties of assistance but institutional duties to realize the conditions for exercising human rights. Human rights, the author concludes, can be ＂used＂ by any person to criticize existing ordering structures and can be activated for political purposes directed to the common good.
文摘In this study, I show that human fights are historical projects. They are legal inventions and institutional structures and respond to historical injustices and serious atrocities suffered by people, or which threaten them. It is useful therefore to first distinguish, both historically and systematically, different conceptions of human fights from a concept of human fights. I will distinguish three conceptions： national, international and transnational. Included in national conceptions are the human fights declarations of North America （1776） and France （1789）. The starting event of the international conception is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations after the Second World War in 1948. And it can be argued that a transnational conception of human fights that better fits the globalised world and the already global developments in intemational law and governance is needed.
