scholarly journals Less is More or More is More? Revisiting Universality of Human Rights

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanel Kerikmäe ◽  
Katrin Nyman-Metcalf
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Less Is More ◽  
Legal Literature ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Abstract Human rights are much talked about and much written about, in academic legal literature as well as in political and other social sciences and the general political debate. Indeed, they are so oft en referred to and used as a basis for claims of various kinds that there may be a risk of certain “inflation” in that so much is said to be a human right that the notion loses its essential meaning. Th is article argues that the universality of basic human rights is one of the values of the concept of rights. Th e rights and the understanding and interpretation of rights may have to be purist. Th is may be the way universal human rights as a concept can survive at all. In the modern world there are different trends that to some extent conflict, like the trend of globalisation but also the re- emphasising in different parts of the world of traditional values, whether from a religious background or something else. It appears that the basic dogma of human rights - which has also been called the first universal ideology - that it is the individual and her rights and freedoms that should always be in the centre of any human rights discourse, is abandoned all the more oft en as the central principle. Instead the banner of human rights is used for various political and economic aims

Housing as a Basic Human Right: A Reflection on South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mziwandile Sobantu ◽  
Nqobile Zulu ◽  
Ntandoyenkosi Maphosa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This paper reflects on human rights in the post-apartheid South Africa housing context from a social development lens. The Constitution guarantees access to adequate housing as a basic human right, a prerequisite for the optimum development of individuals, families and communities. Without the other related socio-economic rights, the provision of access to housing is limited in its service delivery. We argue that housing rights are inseparable from the broader human rights discourse and social development endeavours underway in the country. While government has made much progress through the Reconstruction and Development Programme, the reality of informal settlements and backyard shacks continues to undermine the human rights prospects of the urban poor. Forced evictions undermine some poor citizens’ human rights leading courts to play an active role in enforcing housing and human rights through establishing a jurisprudence that invariably advances a social development agenda. The authors argue that the post-1994 government needs to galvanise the citizenship of the urban poor through development-oriented housing delivery.

scholarly journals Should a Human Right Discourse be Applied to Labour Standards?

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Morteza Shirzad
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Labour Rights ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Public Rights ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Whether a rights discourse should be applied to labour standards, entails addressing two issues. Firstly, what are the philosophical grounds for labour rights and whether they are human rights at all? Even if they cannot be regarded as human rights, should they be applied strategically? While, there is no single comprehensive theory identified to provide sufficient grounding for all labour rights, this paper argues, firstly, that labour rights certainly lack characteristics of universal human rights since they are time-bound and place-bound. Secondly, while recognising the relatively large strategic turn to human rights discourse by labour scholars and labour organisations, this paper argues that this is not a universally applicable strategy and in fact in some contexts application of human rights discourse is counterproductive. The paper, thus, concludes that not only deploying human rights approaches when it comes to countries authoritarian contexts are not effective, but also it is highly likely to be counterproductive, since human rights discourse needs public rights awareness public and authoritarian contexts lack this awareness.

scholarly journals Review of Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice by Zakiya Luna (New York University Press)

Lateral ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Djuna Hallsworth
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Reproductive Justice ◽  
New York University ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Zakiya Luna’s rich study combines comprehensive discourse analysis of political rhetoric and archival documents with her own ethnographic experiences within the reproductive justice movement. This book is an entry point into this often-marginalized arena, presenting a unique perspective informed by years of participant observation and thorough research which has produced additional projects, attesting to Luna’s expertise in this field of study. As a woman of color, Luna’s work is symbolically significant, and her intersectional lens renders this study broadly applicable to scholars of law, sociology, and gender studies, to policymakers and activists, and, indeed, to all women, who the reproductive justice movement indirectly or directly impacts. In tracing the way that reproductive justice has been framed as a “human right,” Luna addresses the potential for the human rights discourse to deliver on its intrinsic promise to secure freedom and equity for all.

Ethnocultural Diversity and Human Rights: Legal Categories, Claims, and the Hybridity of Group Protection

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 250-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaetano Pentassuglia
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Group Status ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Ethnocultural Diversity ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
The Impact

In this article I explore the interface between theoretical accounts of the field, the overlapping dimensions of international legal categories in framing ethnocultural claims, as well as the impact of international legal practice, particularly human rights jurisprudence, on addressing those claims both on their own merits and within the wider context of human rights law. By doing so, I seek to provide a perspective on ethnocultural diversity in human rights discourse that is less concerned with issues of group status and right-holding and more interested in capturing complex overarching dimensions surrounding the field. I argue that looking at the nature and structure of claims is as important as discussing how to maximise protection for tightly construed classes of groups – universally and in the Arctic region. In this context, I also argue for a hybrid understanding of group protection that puts strains on rigid conceptual dichotomies between the individual and the group in human rights law.

Genetic Determinism and Discrimination: A Call to Re-Orient Prevailing Human Rights Discourse to Better Comport with the Public Implications of Individual Genetic Testing

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Eltis
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Genetic Testing ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

“Privacy considerations no longer arise out of particular individual problems; rather, they express conflicts affecting everyone.”Along with the promise of assuaging the scourge of disease, the so-called genetic revolution unquestioningly imports a slew of thorny human rights issues that touch on matters such as dignity, disclosure, and the subject of this article – genetic testing and the social stigma potentially deriving therefrom.It is now rather evident that certain otherwise therapeutically promising forms of research can inadvertently involve social risks exceeding the individual preoccupations of eclectic study participants. With that as the case, the following proposes to examine the peculiar stigma attached to genetic information and its potential human rights implications extending beyond the insurance and employment context. In so doing, it raises the intersection of interests between self-identified members of historically vulnerable groups and the group itself, which the law seems to take for granted in the genetics context.

The human right to health: Autonomy

2020 ◽  
pp. 73-91
Author(s):  
Klisala Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Downtown Eastside ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
Therapy Sessions

Taking its cue from how human rights activists frame human rights in cultural moments, this chapter begins to map how human capabilities are instrumentalized to develop human rights in the Downtown Eastside, and how human rights circulate in music. The music jams and music therapy sessions promote the human right to health of urban poor in different ways, including through enabling their capability to connect socially through music-making; facilitating their capability to psychologically process stress using music; promoting these participants’ senses of autonomy (i.e., control over life situations); and encouraging their use music to grieve early deaths in urban poverty. According to the medical literature and building on human rights discourse of the health equity movement, such capabilities potentially enhance their health and arguably strengthen their human right to health.

Current Environmental Enforcement Issues: Some International Developments and Their Implications for the UK

2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Hagger
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Regulatory System ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
The Common ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Ec Law ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This article will examine enforcement possibilities available in the UK and the domestic implications of some international developments. This will involve an evaluation of the regulatory system in relation to environmental protection, followed by an overview of alternative methods of enforcement which include opportunities for the individual and/or non-governmental organisation (NGO) to use EC law, judicial review and the common law as well as the prospects provided by expanded statutory civil liability and any developments that take place in relation to human rights. While the locus of the human rights discourse seems to have moved from a substantive to a procedural perspective, this article will argue that, given the shortcomings of current (and proposed) methods of enforcement, there should be a realignment of the debate. It is advanced that such a right would underpin environmental protection to the extent that it would need to be considered within all aspects of enforcement and be in a position to override other rights.

Social Rights Protection in Europe in Times of Crisis: ‘A Tale of Two Cities’

ICL Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Baraggia ◽  
Maria Elena Gennusa
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

AbstractEurope can be considered a sort of fortress of the protection of socio-economic rights. However, this bright scenario has been unsettled by the eruption of the Eurozone crisis, which has challenged the narrative of social Europe and swept away protections for social rights in Member States grappling with sovereign debt crises such as Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Cyprus, Latvia and Romania. In these countries, austerity measures led to persistent violations of social rights, under the external constraint of conditionality regimes which involved cuts in wages, pensions and welfare services. Consequently, austerity measures were challenged in domestic and European Courts and before the ECSR. In other words, there has been a ‘turn to the law’, in order to give concrete effect to the potential offered by the relevant legal instruments. What has been the general attitude of the Courts and quasi-judicial bodies to actions challenging austerity measures? Since the analysis of how the Courts and other human rights bodies manage the complex and controversial balance between austerity and social rights is an excellent ‘stress test’ to determine the ‘weight’ of the latter not only in the political debate, but also in the human rights discourse, this paper will focus on the ‘crisis cases’ in Europe, so as to shed light on the actual level of protection for social rights.

Immigration and the Human Rights Discourse: The Universality of Human Rights and the Relevance of States and of Numbers

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Gavison
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Moral Claims ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Administrative Structures ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
Core Issues

The main thesis of this Article is that the tendency to sweepingly use the human rights discourse in immigration contexts may be misguided. Moreover, the expansion of the human rights discourse beyond its natural and critical scope may have negative results and encourage states to act in ways that may harm important interests of immigrants. The unsuitability of applying human rights discourse to many of the core issues of immigration policy derives from three main reasons: First, is the immanent tension between the moral claims that rights are universal and apply to all individuals, and the fact that actual protection of human rights is the primary responsibility of states. Second, is the related distinction between the basic recognition of a human right and the processes of identifying the nature and scope of the duties such recognition involves. Third, are the institutional implications of choosing between the human rights discourse and discussion of policy questions. Issues determined by rights that have already been regulated can and should ordinarily be decided by independent courts; while issues of policy, especially ones that involve extensive enforcement and administrative structures, should be debated, resolved, and implemented by political players. While there are important aspects of immigration that do belong to core human rights in the strongest sense, most typical immigration issues are not, at this stage, matters of universal human rights.

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