Human Rights, Institutions and the Division of Moral Labor

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Ladwig
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Political Morality ◽  
Political Function ◽  
Moral Claims ◽  
Minimalist Conception

AbstractAre human rights general moral norms, or are they conceptually tied to the political function of setting limits to the sovereignty of states? This essay steers a middle course in conceptualizing human rights as basic norms of political morality. Human rights arise out of general moral claims held by individual human beings simply as such, but they play a particular role as necessary conditions of political legitimacy. Nevertheless, we should not identify them with those norms whose violation might justify restrictions on the sovereignty of other states. Such an equation would result in an all too minimalist conception of human rights. The essay advocates a more ambitious conception that integrates civil rights and human rights, particular state and global politics, democracy and collective self-determination under the perspective of a division of moral labor.

Recognized and Violated by International Law: The Human Rights of the Global Poor

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 717-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS POGGE
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
World Bank ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The World

Various human rights are widely recognized in codified and customary international law. These human rights promise all human beings protection against specific severe harms that might be inflicted on them domestically or by foreigners. Yet international law also establishes and maintains institutional structures that greatly contribute to violations of these human rights: fundamental components of international law systematically obstruct the aspirations of poor populations for democratic self-government, civil rights, and minimal economic sufficiency. And central international organizations, such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, are designed so that they systematically contribute to the persistence of severe poverty.

Human Rights

Philosophy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John-Stewart Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Widespread Agreement

There is an enormous range of contemporary and rapidly expanding literature on human rights that pervades almost every area of human life. This entry cannot do justice to all of these areas and would inevitably fail to cover all aspects of the philosophy of human rights. Here, the goal is more modest: offering a primary overview of the thorny literature and many vital human rights issues that can become increasingly complex and muddled. The concept of human rights, however, came to particular prominence in the 20th century after World War II, due to the atrocities (e.g., genocide against the Jews) committed by the Nazis. Since then, the idea of human rights has become profoundly influential in many different fields such as ethics, applied ethics, political philosophy, political sciences, law, international law, medicine, and public health. This has led to the formation of a new area in philosophy called “the philosophy of human rights.” The very idea of human rights, however, is older and can be traced back to early religious ideas and the notion of natural rights in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Generally speaking, human rights are primarily universal moral norms that bind all people in all places at all times independently of any legal recognition. Whether there is a widespread agreement that all human beings have human rights simply because they are human beings is a matter of debate. However, there is currently no common ground with regard to the moral and legal justification or the ontological and epistemological status of human rights. Human rights are primarily universal moral rights and, secondly, international legal rights observed and enforced by nation-states. Despite major caveats concerning the theoretical foundations of human rights, most scholars nonetheless hold the view that there is a vital consensus on the practical importance of human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) (cited under Modern Documents), is the most important human rights document and contains at least seven groups of basic rights: security rights, due process rights, liberty rights, political rights, equality rights, social welfare rights, and group rights.

Darwin and the Declaration

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-16
Author(s):  
S. Adam Seagrave
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Evolutionary Account

Does the prima facie contradiction between the Declaration of Independence's description of the separate and unique “creation” of human beings and Darwin's evolutionary account indicate a broader contradiction between theories of human rights and Darwinian evolution? While similar troubling questions have been raised and answered in the affirmative since Darwin's time, this article renews, updates and significantly fortifies such answers with original arguments. If a “distilled” formulation of the Declaration's central claims, shorn of complicating entanglements with both theology and comprehensive philosophical doctrines, may still be in contradiction with Darwinian evolutionary theory, this should be cause for substantial concern on the part of all normative political theorists, from Straussians to Rawlsians. Despite the notable recent efforts of a few political theorists, evolutionary ethicists and sociobiologists to establish the compatibility of Darwinian evolutionary theory with moral norms such as the idea of natural or human rights, I argue that significant obstacles remain.

scholarly journals The ‘Right to Have Rights’ 65 Years Later: Justice Beyond Humanitarianism, Politics Beyond Sovereignty

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Howard
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Human Cost ◽  
The Right

Readers of Hannah Arendt’s now classic formulation of the statelessness problem in her 1951 book The Origins of Totalitarianism abound at a moment when the number of stateless peoples worldwide continues to rise exponentially. Along with statelessness, few concepts in Arendt scholarship have spawned such a volume of literature, and perhaps none have provoked as much interest outside of the field of philosophy, as ‘the right to have rights.’ Interpreting this enigmatic term exposes the heart of our beliefs about the nature of the political and has important consequences for how we practice politics on a global scale because it implicitly takes plural human beings, and not the citizen, as its subjects. Arendt’s conceptualization of this problem remains unsurpassed in its diagnosis of the political situation of statelessness, as well as its intimate description of the human cost of what she refers to as ‘world loss,’ a phenomenon that the prevailing human rights and global justice discourse does not take into account. And yet, as an alternative framework for thinking about global politics, the right to have rights resists easy interpretation, let alone practical application.

scholarly journals Tinjauan Hukum Internasional HAM dan Hukum Islam terhadap LGBT Perspektif Human Dignity Mashood A. Baderin

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Abu Dzarrin Al-Hamidy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Bisexual And Transgender ◽  
The Universe

<p>This article deals with the issue of homosexuality from the perspective of human rights international law and Islamic law, particularly in the view of Mashood Baderin. The result of understanding towards human rights international law as well as towards Islamic law as the blessings for the universe places human beings in the most respected position. However, there emerge the phenomenon of non-mainstream sexual orientation, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). In the perspective of Mashood Baderin, who portrays human rights international law and Islamic law on the principles of equality and justice, these LGBTs have their rights, as they are also human beings that should be respected due to their human dignity. It is inhumane to discriminate and condemn them. They should receive proportional treatment from the state so that their civil rights are guaranteed. However, with regard to their sexual orientation Islamic law prohibits the same sex marriage or other forbidden sexual relations</p>

Illegal Associations in English Law

1975 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-292
Author(s):  
Abraham Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Basic Rule ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Legal Concept ◽  
English Law ◽  
Habitual Offenders ◽  
Legal Opinion

One cannot overemphasize the basic rule that the maxims ex turpi causa and in pari delicto operate negatively, that is to say, only so as to bring about the rejection of actions tainted with illegality in its widest sense; but they never operate so as to outlaw culprits or deprive even habitual offenders of their civil rights.Some doubt may, however, arise whether the same rule applies to illegal associations. After all, associations are not natural human beings, whose rights as such are regarded as fundamental human rights or safeguarded by Bills of Rights. Associations and corporations, of all kinds, owe their very existence to a legal concept which regards them as something additional, sometimes even entirely different from their members.It is not self-evident then, that illegal associations should or should not be recognized for any civil law purpose, and it is not surprising, therefore, that there has been a diversity of legal opinion on that point.

scholarly journals National Constitutions and Human Rights Issues in Africa

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-123
Author(s):  
E. Ike Udogu
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
European Context ◽  
Rights Issues ◽  
Made In

AbstractPhilosophers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke and Marx, in the European context, and Dubois, Cabral, Fanon, and Ake, in the African political situation investigated and worked on modalities for constructing "the good political life" for human beings in a society with some success in the Occident and limited outcome in Africa. In the latter, the postcolonial period was marked by political competition over the control of the apparatus of power, the problems of human rights and political legitimacy, inter alia. Indeed, provisions were made in the constitution intended to assuage some of these conflictive problems. One such measure was the respect for human rights. The purpose of this essay is to show, concisely, how African governments have not always implemented human rights instruments contained in their constitutions, and to suggest ways that they might, in order to further stability in the area.

Darwin and the Declaration

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (01) ◽  
pp. 2-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Adam Seagrave
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Evolutionary Account

Does the prima facie contradiction between the Declaration of Independence's description of the separate and unique “creation” of human beings and Darwin's evolutionary account indicate a broader contradiction between theories of human rights and Darwinian evolution? While similar troubling questions have been raised and answered in the affirmative since Darwin's time, this article renews, updates and significantly fortifies such answers with original arguments. If a “distilled” formulation of the Declaration's central claims, shorn of complicating entanglements with both theology and comprehensive philosophical doctrines, may still be in contradiction with Darwinian evolutionary theory, this should be cause for substantial concern on the part of all normative political theorists, from Straussians to Rawlsians. Despite the notable recent efforts of a few political theorists, evolutionary ethicists and sociobiologists to establish the compatibility of Darwinian evolutionary theory with moral norms such as the idea of natural or human rights, I argue that significant obstacles remain.

Human Rights

Criminology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay S. Albanese
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Right ◽  
Criminology And Criminal Justice

The concept of human rights is an old idea, but its application to criminology and criminal justice is fairly new. Human rights are those rights seen as being fundamental freedoms to which all human beings are entitled. In the United States, they are referred to as civil rights, most of which are enumerated in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights and which include freedom of speech, assembly, privacy, equality before law, and other civil and political rights. Other countries have similar lists of rights guaranteed to all citizens. The notion of human rights goes beyond civil and political rights, however, and also commonly includes the right to opportunities for work, education, and fair treatment in all aspects of life. Writings on human rights cover centuries, consisting of many works of political and social philosophy that provide the basis for natural and individual rights in the face of the greater power of governments. Many of these classic works are summarized in other reference works, such as The Encyclopedia of Human Rights and The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, both cited in this entry. This guide to sources focuses on contributions to human rights literature and their connections to criminology and criminal justice.

scholarly journals A PERSPECTIVE STUDY OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Sadashiv s. Mugali
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
Residency Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Moral Claims

Human beings are born equal in dignity and rights. These moral claims are articulated and formulated in what is today known as human rights. Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethic origion, colour, religion, language or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. The origin of human rights may be found both in Greek philosophy and the various world religions. In the Age of Enlightenment the concept of human rights emerged as an explicit category.  Origin of the idea of human rights in India though the Rigveda Perod. The term Human Rights refer to those rights are considered universal to humanity, regardless of citizenship, residency status, ethnicity, gender, or other considerations. The present topic is a burning issue and has a great significance in the world especially the developing nations like India. The experience of the last five decades in the area of human rights has become a matter of deep concern. The early history of human rights movement can be traced from 13th century. India was closely and actively participating in all these developments, Finally Government of India introduced the Human Rights Commission Bill in the Lok Sabha on 14th May 1992.

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