Rethinking the International Order—Towards the Zeroth Generation of Human Rights

Abstract

This article revisits the idea of ‘generations’ of human rights at the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration (UDHR) and 25th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration, in a new ‘post-human’ context. The basic assumptions underpinning human rights are compromised when the subject of rights is re-shaped by the ‘stark utopia’ of market globalisation. Current critiques of liberal human rights coincide with the potential collapse of the ‘floor’ of basic assumptions underpinning human rights universalism. Repeated retrogressions of human rights laws, norms and values make ambitions for a progressive realisation of rights seem unachievable when even basic standards are compromised. A post-human imaginary frames the argument for recovering the principle of humanity. The technology-humanity nexus is explored, going beyond the application of science and technology to human rights to view law and human rights as enabling, human-centred social technologies in themselves. The concept of a zeroth generation of human rights adapts the fictional zeroth Law of Robotics to the predicament of human rights in post-human times.