Abstract
This article problematizes the Human Rights conceptualization embodied in the International Human Rights Law corpus. It considers human rights as a Western construct rooted in a particular historical context, located in a specific ideological background and grounded in a concrete socio-cognitive system. Thus, in disregard of features of non-dominant cultures, the mainstream human rights grammar became a discourse of empire. Building on TWAIL and decolonial theory, this article challenges that hegemonic human rights discourse while providing a justification for incorporating other conceptualizations of rights through an inter-epistemic conversation with alternative world-views.
Highlights
Introduction and preliminary clarificationsSince the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, much has been written about the Eurocentric origins and western conceptualization of human rights (HR) and International human rights Law (IHRL)
What are HR to assert their universalism? Many answers have been advanced from various disciplines and areas of study
Are they ideals? Axiological decisions (Ramose), 62 It is in line with efforts of many authors aimed at addressing the gap of “carefully unpacking and resisting the sophisticated and complex processes of denial and mythmaking that have enabled this deceptive posture of innocence [of many global powers] to be maintained
Summary
Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, much has been written about the Eurocentric origins and western conceptualization of human rights (HR) and International human rights Law (IHRL). In order to critically explore the epistemological roots of HR (the genealogy of the IHRL corpus) and interrogate the dominance of the Euro-Western HR discourse (coloniality of knowledge, power and ideology), the theoretical framework of analysis will bring together Third World Approaches to International Law theory (TWAIL) and decolonial approach. Summarizing, this piece defends a thesis that locates the dominant HR ideology in western principles and values as explained above It asserts that the hegemonic HR discourse (positivized in the IHRL) is grounded in a parochial and anthropocentric culture with a narrow understanding of the (human)-being and its relationship with other/s (beings, nature, past-future, etc.).
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