Idea Of Human Rights Research Articles

Pentecostals and Human Rights Controversies in Brazil

This article provides an analysis of the discourse of the Pentecostal leadership in Brazil with respect to the idea of human rights, which has served as a point of reference for collective actions on the part of civil society and in the design of public policy, ranging from the economy to public health, sexual education and social welfare. In particular, this article examines controversies surrounding the inclusion of sexual and reproductive rights on the list of human rights in the last decades of the twentieth century, and shows that, despite multiple interpretations within Pentecostalism, the current dominant account in Brazil privileges the right to freedom of expression and belief, and not the acceptance of proposals from social movements, namely, that reproductive and sexual questions should be addressed within the framework of human rights.

Omar Khadr: A Bleak Mark on Canadian Civil Rights

This essay seeks to answer the question “does Omar Khadr’s story represent a failure of multiculturalism or of justice?” While it might be tempting to label the failure to uphold his charter rights as the exception to the rule and that the judiciary has the tools they need to protect the rights of Canadians, this paper argues that is far from the case. Khadr’s treatment is indicative of a prevalent flaw in Canadian multiculturalism, and in the idea of human rights as a whole, which is its reliance on the state to uphold them. Even though the judiciary determined that Khadr’s rights were violated, it was negligence by the state that lead to his prolonged imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay. Ultimately, the state failed to protect Khadr’s rights because he was not seen as a citizen, despite being born and raised in Toronto. This paper draws on Hannah Arendt’s arguments about the inadequacy of citizenship rights, and examines the case of Maher Arar, whose rights have been similarly neglected.

Extraterritorial State Obligations Beyond the Concept of Jurisdiction

This Article discusses the extraterritorial human rights obligations of states and proposes a new approach for conceptualizing them. While extraterritorial state obligations within the concept of state jurisdiction are indisputably recognized, a more comprehensive perspective beyond jurisdiction is generally lacking. This Article aims to fill that gap. First, it discusses the traditional notions of extraterritorial state obligations and demonstrates their weaknesses. Second, a new concept of extraterritorial state obligations borrowing elements from systems theory is then suggested. The Article argues that comprehensive and general extraterritorial state obligations mainly build upon the normative idea of human rights. Human rights have universal validity and prescribe obligations that are independent of the jurisdiction of a state. What matters is that states can violate human rights beyond their jurisdiction and can influence violations of human rights committed by other actors. Finally, this Article outlines the scope and content of extraterritorial human rights obligations of states.

Philosophical foundations of human rights: the Yoruba example

Some foundations have been provided for the social validity of human rights in Western philosophical literature. Some African scholars have also sought to ground the notion of human rights within the traditional African cultural beliefs and practices. There is, however, a dearth in literature on the Yoruba notion of human rights. Perhaps this may be due to scholars’ attitude that any talk about human rights is incompatible with the communalistic social structure of the Yoruba. The present paper challenges this prevalent attitude by providing some philosophical foundations for human rights within the limits permitted by the Yoruba world-view. The paper attempts a theoretical reconciliation between the Yoruba claim to communitarianism and the possibility of human rights. The paper concludes that, in spite of the seemingly antinomic relation they bear to each other, the idea of human rights is neither practically meaningless/unintelligible in a communitarian society, nor is it conceptually incompatible with the communitarian ideology.Keywords: Philosophical foundations, Human, Rights, Communitarianism, Yoruba

The German Beast Unleashed: Kleist’s Hermannsschlacht and the Suspension of 'Human Rights' in the Era of Nationalism

This article scrutinises the aporetic confrontation of different ultimate values in Kleist’s infamous Die Hermannsschlacht, namely nationalism and a basic notion of ‘human rights’. Kleist’s play does not settle for one of these priorities, but conceptualizes the nation as a facilitator, promulgator, and protector of rights and — at the very same time — as an inexorable principle of selection which ties the notions of exclusion and elimination closely to those of inclusion and participation. In this respect, Die Hermannsschlacht not only prepares and anticipates elements of Carl Schmitt’s political theory, but also comes very close to Giorgio Agamben’s analysis of sovereignty and the production of politically qualified life in his Homo Sacer series. However, it does so without completely abandoning the universal ideas of human rights.

Peace Settlements and Human Rights: A Post-Cold War Circular History

This article analyses the broad shifts in the relationship between peace settlements and human rights from 1990 to the present day. The article points to three phases of development: from 1990 to 2000, which saw a rise in peace processes and agreements and creative engagement with human rights; from 2000 to 2010, when new approaches to human rights and peacemaking were rapidly ‘normativized’ in new international legal standards, but at a cost of a more nuanced political practice; and from 2010 to the current date, an ‘era of disillusionment’ as regards the apparent failures of peacebuilding efforts, where human rights also have a more precarious global position. In the current era I suggest that we are witnessing renewed attention to the ‘politics of the local’ which questions and even rejects formalized human rights approaches to peacebuilding. Counter to the pessimism of the current era, I suggest that this new context may in fact offer new opportunities to return to the idea of human rights as a political practice. Rather than approaching rights as a set of external normative standards to propel liberal institution-building, human rights-based peacebuilding would aim to support a political practice in which rights are given meaning through the process by which they are ‘negotiated’ into being as part of an ongoing politics of inclusion. Such an approach would not only assist engagement with peace processes but might also invigorate a radical conflict prevention approach.

Human Rights and the Future of Being Human

The seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) comes at a time of more contestation than usual over the future of human rights. A sense of urgency animates debates over whether the institutions and ideas of human rights can, or should, survive current geopolitical changes. This symposium, by contrast, shifts the lens to a more slow-moving but equally profound challenge to human rights law: how technology and its impacts on our social and physical environments are reshaping the debate on what it means to be human. Can the UDHR be recast for a time in which new technologies are continually altering how humans interact, and the legal status of robots, rivers, and apes alike are at times argued in the language of rights?

Universalitas Ham dan Sakralitas Syariah (Respon Muslim Konservatif, Liberal dan Progresif Atas Gagasan Ham Internasional)

<p>Universal human rights raises much debate among muslims. There are at least three opinions on international human rights. First, a conservative groups that rejects human rights because it comes from Western civilization and is considered contrary to shariah. Second, the liberal groups who accepted the idea of human rights and argue that human rights and Islam are compatible. Third, progressive groups who accept human rights as a concept that compatible with Islam, but the practice must be criticized. In the modern era, muslim ara faced with many challenges. Islamic law is required to be able to answer the challenges of the times. The idea of reformation of Islamic law has actually been appearing since the era of classical jurisprudence. But unfortunately received less attention. This paper is one of the efforts to recall that the ideal of Islamic law reformation is very important, especially concerning the issues of human rights. </p>

The Continuity of Settlement of Social Feuds among Kurds in the Kurdistan Region

Abstract The autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region currently prides itself not only in its political autonomy and rapid economic development but also in promotion of the idea of human rights and the rule of law. It can be understood that modernising processes may inevitably lead to atrophy of traditional customs and social organisation of Kurdish society. One can easily discern that many cases of disputes among the inhabitants of the Kurdistan Region are processed according to judiciary principles that contradict the official legal doctrines. The examination and comparison of this mechanism in the previous century and nowadays led the author to the conclusion that the unofficial system of justice actually refers to the old tribal mechanism of solving feuds that has been repeatedly practised by bygone Kurdish generations.

Book Review: Robert Lamb, Thomas Paine and the Idea of Human Rights

Book Review: Robert Lamb, <i>Thomas Paine and the Idea of Human Rights</i>

Are Human Rights Moralistic?

In this paper, I engage with the radical critique of human rights moralism. Radical critics argue that: (i) human rights are myopic (they overlook important dimensions of power); (ii) human rights are demobilising (they obscure political conflict); (iii) human rights are paternalistic (they undermine political agency); and (iv) human rights are monopolistic (they displace more radical, collectivist ideologies). I argue that critics offer important insights into the limits of human rights as a language of social justice. However, critics err insofar as they imply that human rights are irredeemably corrupted and they under-estimate the subversive potential of the moral ideas that underpin the discourse. Building on the idea of human rights as claims, I set out the politicising features of human rights as they are deployed in a practical context of disagreement, conflict, and imbalances of power. I illustrate this discussion with reference to the contemporary struggles of irregular migrants.

The Year 2016: A Review of the Events Held in Six European Countries

The Year 2016: A Review of the Events Held in Six European Countries

Peace Settlements and Human Rights: A Post-Cold War Circular History

This article analyses the broad shifts in the relationship between peace settlements and human rights from 1990 to the present day. The article points to three phases of development: from 1990 to 2000, which saw a rise in peace processes and agreements and creative engagement with human rights; from 2000 to 2010, when new approaches to human rights and peacemaking were rapidly ‘normativized’ in new international legal standards, but at a cost of a more nuanced political practice; and from 2010 to the current date, an ‘era of disillusionment’ as regards the apparent failures of peacebuilding efforts, where human rights also have a more precarious global position. In the current era I suggest that we are witnessing renewed attention to the ‘politics of the local’ which questions and even rejects formalized human rights approaches to peacebuilding. Counter to the pessimism of the current era, I suggest that this new context may in fact offer new opportunities to return to the idea of human rights as a political practice. Rather than approaching rights as a set of external normative standards to propel liberal institution-building, human rights-based peacebuilding would aim to support a political practice in which rights are given meaning through the process by which they are ‘negotiated’ into being as part of an ongoing politics of inclusion. Such an approach would not only assist engagement with peace processes but might also invigorate a radical conflict prevention approach.

Protestantism and the Emergence of Human Rights

The idea of human rights is widely accepted as a foundation of legislation and political action. It is the cornerstone of liberal democracies, the ideal held out against oppression and injustice all over the world. At the same time, it arouses debate, and criticism from all parts. Different groups fight for different causes appealing to the same principle of human rights. For all their disagreement, they could perhaps agree on one thing, that is the origin of human rights. But even then, there is disagreement. The commonly held view that human rights are the fruit of the European and American Enlightenment in the 18th century, is now being questioned. In this article, we shall see that Protestantism has played a crucial role, especially one branch of Protestantism in the English-speaking world, the Baptist movement in the early 17th century. Our interest is not only to set the historical record straight, but also to see how the particular origins of human rights are relevant for the development of this principle in today’s societies.

The role of CRPD in rethinking the subject of human rights

ABSTRACTThis study takes off from the critical ideas on the foundations of human rights, from the particular point of the subject of rights, and suggests that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has the potential to liberate the position of the human subject in human rights law, and therefore can act as a guidance in thinking about the current and future prospects of human rights and its underlying concepts. It is argued that by looking at the spirit and purpose of the CRPD, some embedded traditional concepts, namely human dignity and autonomy, can find a better meaning and purpose, by adopting a critical screening and by introducing a relatively new concept, namely vulnerability. The study will briefly refer to general criticism surrounding the idea of human rights, in particular relation to the issue of the ‘subject of rights’, in order to picture the theoretical environment where human rights of persons with disabilities are expected to appear. Departing from the point where criticisms leave us, CRPD’s approach to the human subject will enter the picture within the concepts of dignity, autonomy and vulnerability. Finally, the study will demonstrate the presence and interpretation of these concepts in the convention by targeting a specific article of the convention and present a final assessment between CRPD and contemporary human rights theory.

Human rights concepts in the OSCE region: changes since the Helsinki Final Act

ABSTRACTThe Helsinki Accords resonated with dissident movements in the Soviet Bloc that had reconstructed a classical liberal approach to human rights. Human rights campaigns on both sides of the Iron Curtain emphasized civil and political rights. But human rights revisionism, expanding the scope of human rights, was growing in international institutions. In 1993, the international community embraced the concept of the ‘indivisibility’ of human rights. An expansive, ‘post-modern’ vision of human rights de-emphasized the protection of basic individual freedoms, while expanding global regulation. A strong moral and political challenge to classical human rights has emerged in the form of Eurasianism, a statist doctrine that denies the existence of universal human rights and insists that each culture has its own values. The idea of human rights as protections for basic freedoms, diluted and weakened over decades by assaults and compromises, may lack the moral clarity needed to confront the Eurasian challenge.

Kingdom, covenant, and human rights

This research revisits the idea of a Christian perspective on human rights. Departing from a hermeneutics of trust, this article considers the concept of human rights from the perspective of revelation history. Revelation history departs from the consent of the parts of Scripture, irrespective of differences in dating, original languages, canonical differentiation, cultural, social and historical contexts. Scripture offers a theological unity consisting of various topics which are developed continuing and purposeful throughout the biblical revelation. Two of the major topics in Scripture as they are revealed by a revelation historical survey are the concepts kingdom of God and the covenant of God with God’s people. In this article these two concepts will be used as a foundation for a Christian theory of human rights both as legal human rights and moral human rights. The central theoretical argument of this investigation is that both the concepts kingdom and covenant are essentially about justice and relationships – the justice of the kingdom and the relation between God and humankind, the relation between people and the relation between humans and creation. These relations are the essence of the rights people have, vis-à-vis the authority of the day and other people. These rights, which deal with the orderly maintenance of relationships, can be formalised in legal human rights and should be nurtured and protected by the civil authorities. Christians and churches as moral agents in society have the calling to promote the idea of human rights in constitutional democracies.

Is the idea of human rights a universal concept?

Is the idea of human rights a universal concept?

The idea of human rights in ancient Indian society

The idea of human rights in ancient Indian society

ЭТИКА ПРАВ ЧЕЛОВЕКА И ЭТИКА СПРАВЕДЛИВОСТИ

Despite the fact that a lot has been written about human rights, there is no grounded concept of human rights. Human rights in domestic ethics have long been viewed in a positive way - as an ideal, as a value, as a minimum moral or an analog of universal morality. The article traces the hypothesis of the emergence of the idea of natural human rights, the historical change in its value-normative content in phi-losophy and the role in politics, and, in particular, its fate at the present time, when the idea of human rights has become the value kernel of the ideology of globalization. The main arguments of the critics of human rights are analyzed, expanded or refined, the practice of using human rights as a means for solving some other tasks and value transformations of the idea of human rights in connection with this instrumental application is considered. This approach opens the prospect of a professional philosophical discussion of this topic.