Statelessness, sentimentality and human rights

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 1011-1024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Staples
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Political Practice

This article considers the ongoing difficulties for mainstream political theory of actualizing human rights, with particular reference to Rorty’s attempt to transcend their liberal foundations. It argues that there is a problematic disjuncture between his articulation of exclusion and his hope for inclusion via the expansion of the liberal human rights culture. More specifically, it shows that Rorty’s description of victimhood is based on premises unavailable to him, with the consequence that stateless persons are rendered inhuman, and, further, that his accounts of sentimentality and solidarity have limited potential for the inclusion of such victims within the liberal ‘community of justification’. In the final analysis, the article argues that there is a substantial mismatch between Rorty’s dependence on both liberal norms and international political practice, and his hopes for the human rights culture to include those stripped of human dignity.

A New Guarantee on Earth: Hannah Arendt on Human Dignity and the Politics of Human Rights

1996 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C. Isaac
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Political Action ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Scholarly Attention

While the writings of Hannah Arendt have received an extraordinary amount of scholarly attention, few commentators have seen her as a theorist concerned with questions of human rights. I argue that the problem of human rights was central to Arendt's political theory. While she does not elaborate a theory of human rights as such, and while she avoids the juridical approaches so common among human rights theorists and advocates, her conception of political action is intended to secure an elemental human dignity that is systematically jeopardized by the imperatives of national sovereignty.

Towards an Archival Critique: Opening Possibilities for Addressing Neoliberalism in the Archival Field

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marika Cifor ◽  
Jamie A. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Archival Studies ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Library And Information Studies ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
Contemporary Life

Neoliberalism, as economic doctrine, as political practice, and even as a "governing rationality" of contemporary life and work, has been encroaching on the library and information studies (LIS) field for decades. The shift towards a conscious grappling with social justice and human rights debates and concerns in archival studies scholarship and practice since the 1990s opens the possibility for addressing neoliberalism and its elusive presence. Despite its far-reaching influence, neoliberalism has yet to be substantively addressed in archival discourse. In this article, we propose a set of questions for archival practitioners and scholars to reflect on and consider through their own hands-on practices, research, and productions with records, records creators, and distinct archival communities in order to develop an ongoing archival critique. The goal of this critique is to move towards "an ethical practice of community, as an important mode of participation." This article marks a starting point for critically engaging the archival studies discipline along with the LIS field more broadly by interrogating the discursive and material evidences and implications of neoliberalism.

Energy in Public Administration - Between Human Rights and Efficient Administration

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-241
Author(s):  
Mirko Pecaric
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Reciprocal Relation ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Informal Practices

This paper explores recent notions in public administration, which are intertwined and addressed to the administration of public affairs. On this basis it demonstrates that content of legal system is filled through the static legal principles and rules, but they receive their real content through the informal practices and conditions of the human mind. The paper concludes that discussed notions could have only one name, because they all are the synonyms of reciprocal relation between the human dignity and efficient administration.

The Concept of Imago Dei as a Symbol of Religious Inclusion and Human Dignity

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-36
Author(s):  
Wojciech Szczerba
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Relational Concept ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
Protestant Theologian ◽  
Inclusive Theology

This article aims to examine how the concept of Imago Dei can serve as a symbol for the broadly understood idea of religious inclusion and human dignity. The article explores the concept of Imago Dei primarily from a protological perspective, analyzing its usage in biblical writings, theological tradition and modern philosophy. The substantial, relational and functional—which three usages of the concept can be found in the inclusive theology of Gregory of Nyssa—are analyzed in this article. Arguably, in the context of religious inclusion, the relational angle of Imago Dei seems to be the most important. Similarly contemporary Protestant theologian, Jürgen Moltmann states in his book, God in the Creation, that the “relational” concept of Imago Dei underscores the fundamental dignity of every person. In his book, God for Secular Society, Moltmann states that properly understood human rights should include democratic relationships between people, cooperation between societies, concern for the environment in which people live, and responsibility for future generations. From these perspectives, the concept of Imago Dei can be utilized as a symbol indicating the dignity of every person and human community, but also a symbol against any types of racism, nationalism or xenophobia.

India

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreya Atrey
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Appellate Courts ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
High Courts ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Domestic Law

This chapter provides an expository account of Indian appellate courts’ engagement with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the developing case law on disability rights. As a dualist State, India has ratified but not incorporated the CRPD into its domestic law. This has not deterred frequent references to the CRPD in litigation at the highest level. The appellate courts—High Courts and the Supreme Court—have resorted to the CRPD in diverse ways. The analysis of the small but not insignificant body of case law shows that these instances can be classified into two broad themes of ‘citation’ and ‘interpretation’. In the final analysis, the overall impact of references to the CRPD can be considered largely positive but still modest in the absence of new legislation embracing the human rights framework and social model of the CRPD in India.

The Intersection of Security and Justice in Global Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Durch ◽  
Joris Larik ◽  
Richard Ponzio
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
International Level ◽  
The Core ◽  
Personal Community

Security and justice are both essential elements in humanity’s quest not only to survive but to thrive with dignity; neither is sustainable alone. Security is merely the appearance of order in a framework of structural violence unless tempered or leavened by concepts of justice that include human rights, human dignity, and other normative limits on the use of power. The pursuit of justice, whether at the personal, community, national, or international level can be crippled if not matched, in turn, by means to sustain security at each level. This complementarity of security and justice—despite their inherent tensions—is the core conceptual framework of the book. Achieving “just security,” we argue, is essential to the success of any global governance enterprise or architecture.

Reading Statelessness

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyndsey Stonebridge
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
The Novel ◽  
History Of The Novel ◽  
Political Sovereignty ◽  
History Of

Hannah Arendt’s analysis of the failure of human rights to address statelessness is well known. Less commented upon is how important literature was to her thought. This chapter shows how Arendt’s 1940s essays on Kafka connect the history of the novel to shifting definitions of legal and political sovereignty. Arendt reads The Castle as a blueprint for a political theory that is also a theory of fiction: in the novel K, the unwanted stranger, demolishes the fiction of the rights of man, and with it, the fantasy of assimilation. In a parallel move, Kafka also refuses to assimilate his character into the conventions of fiction. Arendt’s reading changes the terms for how we might approach the literature of exile and of human rights.

The Limits of Human Rights

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Rich Spectrum ◽  
Fresh Insight

This volume engages openly and constructively with the question of what limits of human rights are, and what these limits mean. The contributions focus on conceptual questions of human rights, together providing an exceptionally rich spectrum of viewpoints and arguments across disciplines. The volume brings together a group of distinguished scholars from different disciplines who discuss diverse aspects of limits of human rights from various perspectives and in different topical settings, without engaging in a deconstruction or denial of human rights. Each contribution is supplemented by an engaging comment. The combination of perspectives makes this volume a distinct and unique contribution to the contemporary discussion on human rights. It provides fresh insight and much food for further thought for scholars, practitioners, students, and a wider public interested in law, politics, legal and political theory, philosophy, history, sociology, and anthropology, as they relate to human rights.

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