Political Science 3388E Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Genocide Convention, Jeremy Bentham
11 Dec 2016
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Rights holders lack the capability to act on their own behalf. Have to rely on an external agent to enforce their rights. Dependency makes hr contingent upon the relations and interests of power. Rights meant nothing unless they were enforceable with clear, contractual obligations and backed by law. Concerned with what is and not with what ought to be. Hr are fictional because they depend on others for their protection. This is problematic because arbitrary interpretation and enforcement. Transformed from active decision-making, political subjects to objects for the charity of others. Hr began during the enlightenment period as natural rights: eg. Declaration of the rights of man, american declaration of independence. Late 1800s/early 1900s: move away from natural rights and toward concrete rights of citizenship: consensus of understanding that rights are social and political products, dependent on the state and society in which citizens reside. No desire to build a framework for protection of hr.
