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.

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 Tolerance – a Culturally Dependent Concept?

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trond Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Moral Environment ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This article presents research on Japanese interpretations of the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a point of departure for discussing how the Japanese cultural contexts present an alternative understanding of tolerance to the Western liberal. According to Rainer Forst, tolerance is a normatively dependent concept (Forst 2010). This implies that the specific cultural values or the ‘normative context’ and environment become relevant. Since the praxis of tolerance always takes place in a specific cultural and moral environment, the cultural context influences how tolerance is carried out in practice as well as the norms defining its limits. Japanese informants held that cultural norms and values in Japan differ somewhat from those in the West. They perceived the human rights discourse as culturally dependent and culturally marked and clearly considered the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be a product of Western thought. It states that ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood’ (United Nations 1948). While the role of tolerance in Western political philosophy seems to be attached to liberal values of autonomy and freedom, the Confucian-influenced environment in Japan places more emphasis on inter-dependency, cultivation, and learning social rules and proper-place-occupation as bases for moral conduct and deserving of respect. According to the Japanese informants, people are not ‘born with rights’ or ‘born free and equal’. Maintaining harmony, consensus, and proper behaviour according to relationships and hierarchy creates a different kind of setting for tolerance. The inter-dependent perspectives of Japanese culture may restrain freedom and can thus be expected to limit toleration of divergent views or behaviour. The culture-specific perception of human nature with an ‘inter-dependent construal of self’, counts as a context for tolerance. Also, it could be argued that Japanese religion is less doctrinal and absolute, and particularistic morality prevails. In the Japanese setting, the coexistence of competing truth systems seems to be more easily tolerated. This may broaden the room for tolerance. The cultural values defining ‘the good’ vary, implying that culture counts when the limits for tolerance are drawn. What is valued is culturally dependent, thus directing what is tolerated.        

scholarly journals ‘Glocal’ and integrated churches within a practical theological imagination of ‘home away from home’: towards a ministry of migrants and refugees in diaspora

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vhumani Magezi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Church Ministry ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Critical Link

Migration has become a major global challenge in recent years. Host countries’ responses to migrants are varied – some accommodate and integrate migrants, others are apathetic, and migrants face exclusion and violent rejection. This suggests that host countries have developed mechanisms to cope with the challenges posed by migrants. Migrants have also developed systems to mitigate the impact of the challenges they encounter, such as the establishment of churches in their host countries. These churches may be referred to as ‘glocal churches’. In view of this, this article considers a practical theological imagination of ‘home away from home’ as a migrant-theological and ministry-informing approach and draws on the theological notion that all humans are foreigners (or migrants – homo viator) in whichever life spaces they exist. This study argues that this approach provides a crucial nexus and challenge for church ministry integration in contexts of migration and challenges countries to be hospitable based on Imago Dei (theology) and human dignity (human rights) principles. It is argued that maintained Imago Dei and human dignity provide a critical link between churches and a nation. Furthermore, the notions of ‘inclusiveness’ for host people and ‘home away from final eschatological home’ for migrants provide a practical theological imagination that challenge a host country’s citizens to positively consider migrants and migrants to avoid self-exclusion practices and establish integrated churches and communities.

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.

Affective Politics of Sensation: Anonymity and Transtemporal Activism in Argentina

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 176-195
Author(s):  
Christoph Brunner
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Specific Intervention ◽  
The Public ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
The Disappeared ◽  
Aesthetic Expression

This article deals with the aesthetic mobilization of anonymity in Argentine activist practices. Focusing on the specific intervention of El Siluetazo, the public drawing and placarding of nameless silhouettes during the mili- tary dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, anonymity will be explored as instigating an affective politics of sensation. Different from the human rights discourse on disappearance, which is concerned with politics of identification of the disappeared and the repressors, anonymity offers forms of affective relaying beyond identity. The logic of identity will be discussed in relation to a “ distribution of the sensible” that takes aesthetics of sense perception as the target of control (Rancière, 2004). Through investigating the silhouettes not as a universal signifier of disap- pearance but as an aesthetic expression potentially moving across space and time, I will unfold a media ecological conception of activist practices and their capacities of activating transtemporal forms of resistance. 

scholarly journals De la teoría y la aplicación lingüística a la construcción de la dignidad y los derechos humanos

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-171
Author(s):  
Ana María Rodino
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
World Languages ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
Educational Linguistics ◽  
Dialectical Reasoning ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

La ciencia lingüística no dejó una marca particular, fácilmente identificable en el constructo de dignidad humana consagrado en la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos. Su contribución fue más bien indirecta, inspiradora y principista, pero significativa porque hizo un doble aporte. Primero, se sumó a otras fuentes que respaldaron el discurso de los derechos humanos en la idea de dignidad como rasgo distintivo de los seres humanos. Segundo, contribuyó al razonamiento dialéctico que ese discurso construyó entre semejanza y diferencias para articular las dimensiones de la persona: miembro de la especie, integrante de una sociedad, e individuo autónomo. Sobre lo primero, la Lingüística y la Sociolingüística ofrecieron conocimientos científicos sobre las particularidades de la especie humana que hacen a sus miembros seres dignos de reconocimiento y protección. Enfatizaron nuestra unidad como especie singular (homo loquens, hombre que habla) a la vez que distinguieron nuestras diferencias como individuos y grupos sociales hablantes de distintas lenguas. Así, el estudio científico del lenguaje y las lenguas permitió conocer mejor a sus hablantes, sus facultades y creaciones, y a caracterizarlos como individuos libres, iguales y también cooperativos, en cuanto constructores de sociedades. Sobre lo segundo, estas disciplinas ejemplificaron un discurso elaborado que reconoció nuestra semejanza esencial como familia humana –la facultad del lenguaje— en oposición y a la vez en complementación con nuestras diferencias evidentes como sociedades e individuos hablantes –las distintas lenguas naturales del planeta y las distintas variedades de cada lengua natural—. Articularon los dos reconocimientos en un discurso dialéctico e integrador, que no negó las tensiones entre ellos, pero tampoco las presentó como irresolubles. Las explicó y propuso políticas superadoras, sociales y educativas. De tal forma impulsaron su desarrollo como ciencias y también el discurso de los derechos humanos.     From Linguistic Theory and ApplicationTowards the Construction of Dignity and Human Rights Linguistic science did not leave a particular, easily detectable mark in the human dignity construct acknowledged by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its contribution was mainly indirect, inspirational, and of principle but significant since it made a double contribution. First, it added to other sources supporting the human rights discourse in the notion of dignity as a distinctive feature of human beings.  Second, it contributed to the dialectical reasoning the human rights discourse developed between similarity and differences in order to articulate the various dimensions of a person: member of the human species, participant of a society, and autonomous individual.   About the first, Linguistics and Sociolinguistics put forward scientific knowledge about the particularities of the human species that make its members creatures deserving recognition and protection. They emphasized our unity as a singular species (homo loquens, speaking man) while at the same time distinguished our differences as individuals and social groups speaking different languages. Therefore, the scientific study of language and natural languages allowed a better understanding of their speakers, their faculties and creations, and their portrayal as individuals who are free, equal and also cooperative as society builders.  About the second, these scientific disciplines displayed a complex discourse recognizing our essential similarity as members of the human family –the faculty of language— in contrast with our visible differences as societies and speakers –the different world languages, and the different varieties within each language. Both recognitions were articulated in an including and dialectic discourse, which neither denied the tensions between them nor presented them as unsolvable. Such a discourse explained the tensions while proposing comprehensive social and educational policies to deal with them. In such a way these sciences further their  development, and the development of the human rights discourse. Keywords: Linguistics. Sociolinguistics. Educational Linguistics. Dignity. Human Rights. Pandemic

scholarly journals Rethinking Human Rights through the Language of Capabilities: An Introduction to Capabilities Approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Latika Vashist
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Martha Nussbaum ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

This paper seeks to contrast the language of human rights with capabilities approach conceptualized by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. While capabilities approach is an effective way of comprehending and mplementing the rights guaranteed to people, language of human rights remains the essential pre-requisite for the development and enhancement of people’s capabilities. While both these frameworks for justice operate within the western liberal paradigm, capabilities approach fills in the gaps of modern human rights discourse. The new idea of justice that accords a central place to human dignity mandates that the human rights entrenched in the Constitution be read as capabilities. The desperate vacuum that exists between the promises of law and realities of existence can only be bridged by institutionalizing a blend of rights and capabilities in the pursuit of justice. The paper argues that the language of human rights and that of capabilities ought to supplement and complement each other for true human flourishing

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