Human Rights and Capabilities: A Program for a Critical Sociology of Law

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 921-935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean De Munck
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
Critical Sociology ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Epistemological Basis ◽  
The Capability Approach

This article sets out the fecundity of the Capability Approach for a sociology of human rights. The author endeavors to show that four difficulties can be successfully overcome. (1) The first is epistemological in nature. Human rights are often presented as legal norms. By relying on the Putman/Habermas debate, the author maintains that Sen’s epistemology is Putnamian, allowing us to treat human rights a system of values (rather than as a system of norms), thereby enabling the construction of a system of evaluation (the “goal rights system”) that is neither consequentialist nor deontological. This system is open to public deliberation and can thus take into account the systems of evaluation of participants (in addition to that of the observer). This epistemological basis serves to remove the other obstacles. (2) By defining the individual in terms of “capabilities”, Sen avoids a methodological individualism that would produce an under-socialized version of the individual. (3) He includes social, economic, and cultural rights in the list of human rights, whereas liberal philosophies tend to exclude these. (4) He allows for the thematization of the specific conversion factors that condition the transformation of formal rights into real freedoms (internormative culture, civilian legal intermediaries, access to resources and the capabilities to use them). Avoiding formalism, the capability approach is a valuable instrument for a critical sociology of human rights.

NGOs

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Mutzenberg
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Oral Information

This chapter evaluates the role played by NGOs before the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Human Rights Committee. Even if NGO participation was not originally foreseen in the Covenants, clear proceedings have subsequently been established to ensure their involvement in the Committees’ work. This chapter’s main focus is on the reporting procedure: it assesses how NGOs can submit written and oral information to strengthen this process. It also briefly addresses the NGO role in other areas of the Committees’ work, in particular the drafting of General Comments and the individual communications mechanisms. However, NGO participation is not limited to the work carried out in Geneva, and the chapter highlights recent NGO initiatives to ensure proper national implementation of the Committees’ recommendations. Such engagement is also possible in the context of the follow-up procedures, albeit to different extents depending on the practices of the respective Committee.

scholarly journals The capabilities and human rights of high performance athletes

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Adams ◽  
Emma Kavanagh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Precise Analysis ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Capability Approach

High performance athletes participate and function in sports systems where exploitative behaviours may become manifest. These behaviours potentially violate an individual athlete’s human rights. Using the Capability Approach first outlined by Amartya Sen the paper details how a more precise analysis of human rights, in the context of high performance sport, may be achieved. Using in-depth narrative accounts from high performance athletes, data illustrate how athlete maltreatment is related to individual capabilities and functionings: the loss of individual freedoms infringes accepted notions of human rights. The implications for practice concern how human rights may be protected within and for systems of high performance production.

scholarly journals THE HUMAN RIGHT TO HEALTH: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS AFTER 70 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

2018 ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
MARÍA DALLI
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the first international text recognising universal human rights for all; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 25 recognises the right to an adequate standard of living, which includes the right to health and medical care. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Declaration, this article presents an overview of the main developments that have been made towards understanding the content and implications of the right to health, as well as an analysis of some specific advancements that aim to facilitate the enforcement thereof. These include: a) the implication of private entities as responsible for right to health obligations; b) the Universal Health Coverage goal, proposed by the World Health Organization and included as one of the Sustainable Development Goals; and c) the individual complaints mechanism introduced by the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted on the 10th December 2008, 60 years after the UDHR).

Digitalization and rural entrepreneurial attitude in Indonesia: a capability approach

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fikri Zul Fahmi ◽  
Medina Savira
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rural Entrepreneurship ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Capability Approach

Purpose This paper aims to identify how digitalization affects entrepreneurial attitudes in rural areas in Indonesia, a country in the Global South. The development of digital technology can help entrepreneurs, in that faster and easier information acquisition helps rural communities to identify new opportunities and innovate. Yet, digital development generates higher disparity, and thus, not all people can benefit from digitalization. Although digital technology can facilitate the development of entrepreneurship, its benefits depend on individual preferences. In this regard, the capability approach is used so as to reflect how different valuations of digital technology in rural entrepreneurs influence their attitude with regard to recognizing business opportunities and taking risks. Design/methodology/approach A double case study approach is used in which this study examines two cases of rural entrepreneurs in Indonesia that represent different uses of digital technologies and socio-economic rural contexts: coffee entrepreneurs in Kintamani and craft producers in Kamasan village. In so doing, semi-structured interviews were conducted with local entrepreneurs and communities according to purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The qualitative data were then analysed using a constant comparative technique which allows us to develop a conceptual argument by observing patterns within and between the cases. Findings The findings show that digitalization shapes the attitude of rural entrepreneurs differently, although the same opportunity from using digital technology is present in the village. Social and environmental factors facilitate the rural entrepreneurs to consider using digital technology to develop their businesses. However, as each individual entrepreneur has a different valuation of digital technology, the benefits it offers – such as broader market opportunities and new business ideas – vary. Entrepreneurs who consider digital technology to be a valuable resource for developing their businesses are more curious to explore its benefits. Originality/value The capability approach provides a new perspective in understanding rural entrepreneurship. First, the authors demonstrate that the success of rural entrepreneurship is influenced not only by concrete things (e.g. resources) but also the individual perspective on these resources which may vary across entrepreneurs. Second, the authors show not only the potential differences in socio-cultural contexts in which the capability approach is applied but also how socio-cultural values and collectivism influence the individual valuation of resources that could benefit entrepreneurs.

scholarly journals An Integrated Framework for Child Poverty and Well-Being Measurement: Reconciling Theories

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Biggeri ◽  
Jose Antonio Cuesta
Keyword(s):  
Capability Approach ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Multidimensional Poverty ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Integrated Framework ◽  
Egyptian Children ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Capability Approach

Abstract Multidimensional child poverty (MDCP) and well-being measures are increasingly developed in the literature. Much more effort has gone to highlight the differences across measurement approaches than to stress the multiple conceptual and practical similarities across measures. We propose a new framework, the Integrated Framework for Child Poverty—IFCP––that combines three main conceptual approaches, the Capability Approach, Human Rights, and Basic Needs into an integrated bio-ecological framework. This integrated approach aims to bring more clarity about the concept and dynamics of multidimensional poverty and well-being and to disentangle causes from effects, outcomes from opportunities, dynamic from static elements, and observed from assumed behaviours. Moreover, the IFCP explains the MDCP dynamics that link the resources (goods and services), to child capabilities (opportunities) and achieved functionings (outcomes), and describes how these are mediated by the individual, social and environmental conversion factors as specified in the capability approach. Access to safe water is taken as a conceptual illustrative case, while the extended measurement of child poverty and well-being among Egyptian children ages 0 to 5 as an empirical example using IFCP. The proposed framework marks a step forward in understanding child poverty and well-being multidimensional linkages and suggesting desirable features and data requirements of MDCP and well-being measures.

Cultural Rights of MigrantsLiving Together in Dignity?

2021 ◽  
pp. 175-195
Author(s):  
Bianca Gutan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Global Migration ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
European Court ◽  
Living Together ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Constitutional Identity

The growing and multifarious challenges (political, legal, social, and economic) that global migration raises for contemporary states requires solutions related not only to constitutional identity, but also to a better protection of human rights. Although less visible in the ‘big picture’, cultural rights are an important category of human rights. An absent or a precarious protection of these rights might affect other rights. That is why a balance must be struck between society’s needs and the cultural rights of the individual. In this context, questions may be asked: could there be common points regarding the cultural rights of migrants and of minorities in Europe? Is ‘living together’ a concept that can ensure the full respect of the human dignity of migrants, especially as regards cultural rights? The chapter attempts to answer some of these questions, mainly through the prism of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

scholarly journals Moving beyond contemporary discourses: children, prostitution, modern slavery and human trafficking

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-221
Author(s):  
Helen Charnley ◽  
Pearson Nkhoma
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Alternative Understanding ◽  
The Capability Approach

The relationship between prostitution, modern slavery and human trafficking is much debated in the academic literature. By contrast, discussion of children’s involvement in prostitution as a form of modern slavery and human trafficking constitutes a silent consensus. Drawing on the findings of a participatory study with girls and young women in Malawi, we prize open that consensus, illuminating the poverty of contemporary discourses that link children’s involvement in prostitution with modern slavery and human trafficking, and identifying a series of tensions that confound the development of conceptual clarity. We develop our argument by exploring the potential of the capability approach, rooted in principles of social justice and human rights, to offer an alternative understanding of children’s engagement and ongoing involvement in prostitution, and a critical lens through which to reframe the relationship between children, prostitution, modern slavery and human trafficking.

scholarly journals Meninjau Tanggungjawab Sosial Perusahaan dalam Pendekatan Kapabilitas

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Pinurba Parama Pratiyudha
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Third World ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Capability Approach

This paper departs from the discourse of the paradigm of social development in third world countries. The first discourse reviews the critics of the broad state in social development. It supports the non-state actors to take a part in development through corporate social responsibility (CSR). The second discourse departs from economic development which weakens the capability of the individual in achieving development itself. The concept of the capability approach in human development emerged as a solution to create inclusive welfare. This paper itself raises these two things in one discussion related to the role of CSR in relation to the development of human capabilities. Taking an analysis of the Program Desa Mandiri Energi by PJB UP Paiton, the study examines the role of CSR activities in supporting community capabilities. This paper argues that the existence of CSR provides a strong contribution to strengthening the capabilities of the community that has developed from the past. However, in the subsequent findings, there are several aspects of CSR programs that still several actions to be developed and improved human capabilities.

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