scholarly journals The contribution of deontological Christian ethics to the contemporary human rights discourse

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Vorster
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Deontological Ethics ◽  
Religious Extremism ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This article examines the possible role of a Christian deonto- logical ethics in the contemporary human rights debate. It concludes that a Christian deontological ethics in the Reformed tradition can be positively engaged in the human rights debate when Biblical theological topics are transposed into moral directives applicable to the current human rights concerns, such as religious extremism, femicide, ideologies of intolerance and ecocide. As an example of the applicability of a Christian deon- tological ethics from a reformed perspective, the following Bibli- cal topics are investigated: human dignity on the basis of the “imago dei”, creation and creational integrity, the kingdom of God and forgiveness. Furthermore, the article proposes that other concepts can be added to this list such as the Biblical idea of life, eschatology, covenant and holiness.

scholarly journals Identity and dignity within the human rights discourse: An anthropological and praxis approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Louw
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

The theological discourse mostly focuses on the moral and ethical framework for human rights and human dignity. In order to give theological justification to the value and dignity of human beings, most theologians point to the imago Dei as theological starting point for the design of an anthropology on human dignity. Within the paradigmatic framework of democracy, human dignity and human rights have become interchangeable concepts. This article aimed to focus not on ethics but on aesthetics: man as homo aestheticus, as well as the praxis question regarding the quality of human dignity within the network of human relationships. It was argued that human dignity is more fundamental than human rights. Dignity as an anthropological construct should not reside in the first place in the imago Dei and its relationship to Christology and incarnation theology. Human dignity, human rights and human identity are embedded in the basic human quest for meaning (teleology). As such, human dignity should, in a practical theological approach to anthropology, be dealt with from the aesthetic perspective of charisma, thus the option for inhabitational theology. As an anthropological category, human dignity should be viewed from the perspective of pneumatology within the networking framework of a �spiritual humanism�. In this regard, the theology of the Dutch theologian A.A. van Ruler, and especially his seminal 1968 work Ik geloof, should be revisited by a pneumatic anthropology within the parameters of practical theology.

The Taming of the Shrill: From Indicators to Indicatorization

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-115
Author(s):  
Siobhán Airey
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Right To Development ◽  
International Economic Relations ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Right ◽  
High Level ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This article addresses the specific norm-generation function of indicators in a human rights context, focusing on ways that indicators foreground and legitimize as ‘truth’ particular worldviews or values. It describes the stakes of this process through elaborating on the concept of ‘indicatorization’, focusing on one moment in which the relationship between human rights and development was defined through indicators: the indicatorization of the Right to Development by a un High Level Task Force in 2010. In this initiative, different perspectives on human rights, equality, participation and development from within the un and the World Bank were brought together. This resulted in a subtle but significant re-articulation of ideas contained in the 1986 un Declaration on the Right to Development. The article argues that how indicatorization happens, matters, and has important implications for the potential role of human rights discourse within international economic relations.

Group Identities and Human Rights: How Do We Square the Circle in International Law?

2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 94-106
Author(s):  
Gaetano Pentassuglia
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Human Rights Practice ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Group Diversity ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
The Relationship

The identity of groups of an ethno-cultural variety has long fallen within the remit of internati­onal human rights law. In this context, discussions have been largely concerned with the legal status of groups and/or the nature of the legal right(s) in question. While acknowledging the importance of these dimensions, in this article I seek to provide an alternative account by dis­cussing the continuities and discontinuities in articulating the very concept of group identity. I first examine the potential, limitations and eventual hybridity of human rights practice across the spectrum of minority/indigenous identities. Then, I critique a range of instabilities in human rights discourse relating to the idea of group identities, their personal scope and the role of international law. I argue that such instabilities do not merely mirror the ambivalent outlook of the relationship between human rights and group identities; they raise the broader question of whether there is a relatively more coherent way to capture the legitimacy of group claims. I conclude by pointing to the outer limits of identity claims, the understated interplay of sove­reignty and inter-group diversity, and the need to unpack the reasons why certain groups merit protection in the way they do.

Humanitarian Intervention in International and Islamic Law

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-106
Author(s):  
Ermin Sinanovic
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Fundamental Issue ◽  
Moral Foundation ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Jus Cogens ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

In this paper, I look into the moral foundation of humanitarian intervention in international law and its Islamic counterpart. My objective is to identify the traits shared by both sets of laws, and to see if the same or similar justification can be used across cultures to reach the same goal. In other words, one goal is to assess the claims that the basis upon which humanitarian intervention is justified has a universal appeal. Both international and Islamic law justify humanitarian intervention on moral grounds. International law bases its justification upon the human rights discourse. Islamic law provides enough bases for legitimizing humanitarian intervention, and Qur’anic verses, scholarly opinions, and Islamic principles provide a sound background for it. Paramount in this task is the concept of human dignity (karamah al-insan). We found no disagreement on this fundamental issue between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Islamic law. Human dignity, as understood in international human rights and its Islamic counterpart, thus could form the jus cogens of international law, a common human heritage upon which everybody can agree.

Labor Rights

2018 ◽  
pp. 229-260
Author(s):  
Pablo Gilabert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Philosophical Literature ◽  
Constructive Discussion ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Human rights discourse invokes entitlements to freely chosen work, to decent working conditions, and to form and join unions. Despite their importance, these rights remain underexplored in the philosophical literature on human rights. This chapter offers a systematic and constructive discussion of them. It surveys the content and current relevance of the labor rights stated in the most important human rights documents. It gives a moral defense of these rights, justifying their support on the basis of important human interests and human dignity. It replies to objections about the importance of work, explains why labor human rights may not exhaust the demands of dignity regarding labor, and arbitrates a common tension between independence and solidarity. To solidaristically empower all persons who can work to access and defend decent working conditions in which their valuable capacities can be developed and exercised is an obligatory response to their human dignity.

Understanding Human Dignity in Human Rights

2018 ◽  
pp. 113-140
Author(s):  
Pablo Gilabert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Normative Force ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Decent Life ◽  
Positive Duties ◽  
Conceptual Network ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This chapter offers an interpretation of the idea of human dignity that explains how it can play certain valuable roles in human rights discourse. The idea contributes to the articulation of a distinctive set of norms that are universalist and humanist, the justification of specific human rights, the grounding of the great normative force of these rights, the combined generation of both negative and positive duties correlative to them, the explanation of the significance of political struggles against their violation, and the illumination of the arc of humanist justice running from basic requirements mandating people’s access to a decent life to maximal requirements to support people’s access to a flourishing life. The idea of human dignity is articulated through a conceptual network that includes an organic set of more specific ideas. These ideas include status-dignity, condition-dignity, dignitarian norms, the basis of dignity, the circumstances of dignity, and dignitarian virtue.

scholarly journals The Missing Coke Bottle

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-43
Author(s):  
Julian Brook Ruszel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Environmental Destruction ◽  
Stark Contrast ◽  
Western Nations ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Indonesian artist activist Arahmaiani’s art installations and performances combine western and non-western cultural elements in such a way as to highlight the role of capitalist globalization as an exploitative and destructive neo-colonial force in places like Indonesia. Beginning in the 1990s, Arahmaiani’s work featured a Coca-Cola bottle in a prominent position, emphasizing the effects of commodification and Americanization on indigenous and non-western cultures. Her work is always intersectional, connecting injustices linked to patriarchy, class, and environmental destruction to global political and economic structures in ways not typical of western liberal human rights discourses, such as that demonstrated by academic Lucinda Peach in her own human rights critique. Arahmaiani’s work thus serves as a stark contrast to western liberal human rights discourse that urges academics and activists to redirect their gaze away from the cultural idiosyncrasies of non-western nations towards the western roots of global structures of inequality.

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