The Heart of Human Rights By Allen Buchanan

Abstract

Taking a close look at the philosophical underpinning or implications of the idea of human rights is nothing particularly new in the academic world. Many of the leading lights of the past half century have made these considerations a central component of their work, in no small part, because figuring out the status of human rights is recognized as an important part of the project of contemporary liberalism. Working out what exactly human rights mean for us, how we can justify their existence and power, and whether or not they carry the same weight around the globe is surely no idle matter. This is especially true at a moment when the idea of human rights stands on perhaps its shakiest footing. In the past decade and a half, a great deal of attention has been paid, by both theorists and practitioners, to the question of the efficacy of human rights. Even as the International Criminal Court (ICC) began its work during this time period, issuing indictments and prosecuting those who committed crimes against humanity, critics of human rights – as both an idea and a matter of law – pointed to the seeming lack of enforcement of major international legal instruments like the Genocide Convention and the Torture Convention.