Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

This is a good time for human rights. Not that they are respected more than in the past. The flagrant resort to kidnapping, arbitrary arrests, and torture by the United States of America (USA), and the unprecedented restriction of individual freedom in the USA, and in Great Britain (GB), cast doubt about that. It is a good time for human rights in that claims about such rights are used more widely in the conduct of world affairs than before. There are declarations of and treaties about human rights, international courts and tribunals with jurisdiction over various human right violations. They are invoked to justify wars (for example, Haiti, Somalia, and Yugoslavia). Observance of human rights is used as a condition of participation in various international programmes, the receipt of financial aid, and so on. A number of impressive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) monitor respect for human rights. As John Tasioulas notes: ‘discourse of human rights [has acquired] in recent times ... the status of an ethical lingua franca’.

No doubt, human rights rhetoric is rife with hollow hypocrisy; it is infected by self-serving cynicism and by self-deception, but these vices do not totally negate the value of the growing acceptance of human rights in the conduct of international relations. The hypocrite and the self-deceived themselves pay homage to the standards they distort by acknowledging through their very hypocritical and deceitful invocation that these are the appropriate standards by which to judge their conduct. However, the success of the practice of human rights, as I will refer to the range of activities I have mentioned, poses a problem for ethical reflections about them.

Disciplines

Human Rights Law | Law | Law and Philosophy | Philosophy

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