1.2: Human Rights Dichotomies
1.2.1: Human Rights Overview
Read this article on human rights for an in-depth consideration of the human rights concept and its application.
1.2.2: Universal vs. Relative Rights
The first of the human rights dichotomies, and perhaps the most contentious, encompasses two apparent competing notions of human rights: universality and relativism. Do rights apply to all humans all of the time without any conditions? Or are human rights, and by extension justice, to be understood as conditional? Are rights to be understood as deriving from a particular set of circumstances such as nationality/citizenship, age, sex/gender, or cultural norms?
Read this article, which continues this discussion.
Read this article, which continues this discussion.
Read this introduction. O'Neill sees the Rawlsian constructivist approach to justice as too "closed" or circumscribed by a particular intellectual and empirical history, and its scope as too limited in being from and for people of a certain disposition. She advocates for a more universal theory of justice, which at the same time is not so abstract as to lose the capacity for meaning to people of a variety of particular cultural backgrounds and places.
Read Section 2 of this article on cosmopolitanism, paying particular attention to where O'Neill is referenced.
1.2.3: Individual vs. Collective Rights
Read this article. The author reviews two recent books on the topic of human rights and group rights. However, before discussing the particularities of the scholarly books, Zwiebach presents his argument in favor of individual rights. He contends that a group rights approach to human rights is counterproductive to the protection and promotion of human rights and does nothing to advance human rights. In fact, Zwiebach suggests that the conceptualization of group rights lends ambiguity to the human rights discourse and thereby a lack of application.
Read this article, which explores the tension between individual and collective rights and argues that a practical coexistence and promotion of both is quite possible.
Watch these two lectures on justice. Sandel attacks the abstract approach of Rawlsian constructivism. He emphasizes the undesirability, if not the impossibility, of arriving at principles of justice from an unencumbered self-devoid of attachments to community and a comprehensive doctrine encompassing what it means to live a good life. Sandel does not see humans as individuals that choose a particular form of life or that can abstract themselves from a particular form of life or comprehensive doctrine. Rather, communities and comprehensive doctrines are constitutive of individuals.
1.2.4: Civil/Political - Economic/Social/Cultural Rights
Read this article. In his introduction, Marks touches on the classic dichotomy between civil and political and economic, social, and cultural rights. After a brief discussion of the historical, political, and legal contexts for this differentiation, the author rejects this differentiation in favor of an alternative understanding of human rights. In essence, human rights need to be considered holistically to ensure their protection and promotion.
Read this article. Weiss provides an introduction to and analysis of the ways in which specific human rights (e.g. labor rights, discrimination, etc.) cut across the boundary between civil and political rights on the one hand and economic, social, and cultural rights on the other hand. The author further elucidates Marks' analysis through this consideration of concrete specific rights. In doing so, she explores the relationships between various globalization dynamics and their impact on human rights.
Read this article. Neier clearly and succinctly argues that the only meaningful way to discuss human rights is in the context of a contractual relationship between an individual and his or her state or community. The lynchpin of this argument is that rights must be enforceable; therefore, the judicial process becomes central to the protection and promotion of human rights.
Read this article. Symonides laments the apparent lack of attention given to cultural rights in comparison to economic and social rights. Several explanations for this disparity of attention are offered along with an historical analysis of this development or lack thereof. The article explores the disparate manner in which cultural rights are enumerated in terms of various other human rights. This lack of cohesion has led to cultural rights being undervalued and, therefore, not protected and promoted to the same extent as other rights.
Read this article. In her address, Stamatopoulou reflects on why there now seems to be recognition of the prior lack of attention on cultural rights. Further, she discusses the reasons why cultural rights are now receiving attention by the various actors within the international community.