scholarly journals A Note on the Origins of Human Rights: Bartolomé de las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio Jensen
2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard P Boast

This article critically reviews the claim that the Spanish jurist-theologians Francisco de Vítoria and Bartolomé de las Casas, and their successors, were pioneers of human rights theory and of the law relating to the rights of indigenous peoples. The article seeks to clarify the literature relating to these claims by dividing it into various categories and analysing each in turn. A principal aim of the article is to convey the sheer diversity and scale of the various competing historiographies and the extent to which they stand in contrast to each other. By way of conclusion, there is a discussion of those parts of the debate which are of greatest relevance and resonance for a jurisdiction such as New Zealand, where questions about the origins and nature of indigenous rights law are not merely a matter of theoretical interest, but also of great practical relevance.


Hallazgos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (33) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Wilmar Pino Montoya

La tesis principal de este trabajo es argumentar que los principios pensados por Bartolomé de las Casas que le sirvieron para defender los aborígenes de América de los actos de los españoles, parten del concepto filosófico de hombre y de los argumentos sustraídos, principalmente de la tradición aristotélica, las teorías de Tomas de Aquino, Francisco de Vitoria, del cristianismo y de su experiencia como clérigo y encomendero en las tierras americanas. Por otra parte, sustentar que aun su pensamiento le aporta a la reflexión actual de los derechos humanos y a la construcción y consolidación de los Estados democráticos contemporáneos.


Author(s):  
Valentina Ripa

Resum: Al present article s’analitza la pel·lícula También la lluvia, una bona mostra de com també el cine «pel gran públic» pot contribuir, a través de les seves representacions, a conscienciar els espectadors; en aquest cas, sobre temes com el genocidi indígena a l’edat moderna, la històrica marginació dels pobles indígenes d’Amèrica Llatina i el dret a l’aigua que hom posa en discussió arreu del món. S’hi destaca, especialment, el racisme inherent als discursos de les elits que estan reproduïts a la pel·lícula i que són una bona mostra –dins del codi realista de También la lluvia– d’idees i d’un llenguatge prou difós. Paraules clau: Divulgació dels drets humans a través del cinema; anàlisi crític del discurs; pobles indígenes d’Amèrica Llatina; Bolívia entre els segles XX i XXI; Bartolomé de las Casas Abstract: The present article analyses the film También la lluvia, a good example of how cinema «for the general public» can also contribute, through its representations, to people’s awareness; in this case, on themes such as the indigenous genocide in the modern era, the historical marginalisation of the indigenous peoples of Latin America and the right to water that is questioned all over the word. Particularly noteworthy is the inherent racism of the discourses of the elites that are reproduced in the film and that are a good example –in the realistic code of También la lluvia– of rather widespread ideas and language. Keywords: Dissemination of human rights through the cinema; critical discourse analysis; indigenous peoples of Latin America; Bolivia in the 20th and 21st centuries; Bartolomé de las Casas


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-93
Author(s):  
Rolando Pérez

This article deals with Bartolomé de Las Casas’ contribution to the notion of universal human rights. Though much study has been devoted to Las Casas’ work, what remains understudied is the Spanish philosopher’s conception of religion, which in many ways resembles what Kant called “the religion of reason.” For Las Casas, then, Christianity was conceived more as a rational system of ethics than as a compendium of Biblical and scholastic dogmas. Like the later Enlightenment philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Las Casas believed that all humans belonged to the same universal community of rational beings. By examining Las Casas together with Fichte, this article sheds further light on Las Casas’ anticipatory notions of moral agency, formal freedom, rational religion, and the rights of a free people against the use of coercion—regardless of their race, religion, or culture. They are the ideas underpinning his notion of universal human rights (Paulist and Thomist in nature), and his ethics of the Other, who “is just like me”: a rational, feeling human being, deserving of equal justice and rights.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgardo Colón-Emeric

AbstractTolerance is often considered a modern social development. However, a robust, if distinctly unmodern, concept of tolerance can be found in the work of Thomas Aquinas. The object of tolerance is a perceived evil which is endured for the sake of averting a greater evil. The paper explores how the concept of tolerance which Bartolomé de las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria inherited from Thomas Aquinas was deployed and stretched in response to the Amerindian cult of human sacrifice. Both Spanish Dominicans concur in regarding human sacrifice as an evil act, but they base their judgment on different principles. Las Casas interprets human sacrifice as a question of religion. Vitoria considers it a question of temperance. The result is that Las Casas counsels toleration of the practice, whereas Vitoria justifies military intervention on behalf of the innocent.


Author(s):  
Christina H. Lee

Domingo de Salazar (c.1512–1594) was the first bishop of the Philippines, a member of the Dominican order, and a follower of noted critics of the Spanish imperial enterprise like the jurist Francisco de Vitoria and the historian/activist Bartolomé de las Casas. In this letter to King Philip II, Salazar denounces the abuses of the indigenous population and the mistreatment of Chinese migrants by the Spanish colonists, and calls upon the crown to intervene in the colony’s affairs. In so doing, he provides invaluable insight into the work of colonization, and the complex relationship that the Spanish Philippines developed with China and with the burgeoning Chinese population of the islands themselves. Christina Lee provides biographical and historical context.


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