Human Rights as Moral Rebellion and Social Construction

Abstract

This paper describes and defends a moral constructivist theory of human rights which characterizes them as an historically-evolved, socially-constructed ethico-legal paradigm designed to prevent and ameliorate systematic or institutionalized forms of oppression. After describing this theory and comparing it with alternative accounts of the nature, origins, and justifications of human rights, I argue that by grounding a common understanding of human rights within this framework, the global human rights community can better address the challenge of effectively protecting “all human rights for all” through the development of a more empirically grounded and cosmopolitan conception of human rights.