Dynamic nature of human rights: Rawls's critique of moral universalism

Human rights do not represent an absolute truth. Otherwise, they would represent ideology, which is contradictory to the basic idea of human rights itself. Consequently, there is a need for redefinition of the main presuppositions of modern conception of human rights represented in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This paper argues that Rawls's conception of human rights is significant for the refiguration of human rights. It represents the path towards postmodern idea of human rights and the recognition of difference.

As definições teóricas de direitos humanos de Jürgen Habermas: o princípio legal e as correções morais[ign] [title language="en"]The theoretical definitions of human rights of Jürgen Habermas[ign]: [subtitle]legal principle and moral corrections

No entendimento de Habermas, "direito", na expressão "direitos humanos", é um conceito jurídico, donde direitos humanos, para ele, serem direitos jurídicos, normas legais declaradas em atos de fundações do Estado ou anunciadas em convenções do direito internacional e/ou constituições estatais. Ao conceber assim os direitos e tematizar os direitos humanos numa abordagem tríplice (focando-os entre moral, direito e política), ele fornece diferentes definições teóricas dos direitos humanos. O texto apresenta uma exposição sistemática dessas definições e focaliza os diferentes problemas que motivaram Habermas a alterar e ampliar suas concepções de direitos humanos.

The human rights dilemma : an east-west encounter : Germany and China in 1996 /

Conflicts over human rights in relations between East Asia and the West have increased since the end of the Cold War. Western governments express concern about human rights standards in East Asian countries. In the East, these expressions have been perceived as interference in internal affairs. Due to dramatic economic development, East Asian nations recently have gained in pride and self-confidence as global actors. Such development is observed with suspicion in the West. Concerned about the decline of global U.S. influence, some American scholars have re-invented the notion of "culture" to point at an alleged East Asian threat. Also East Asian statesmen use the cultural argument by claiming the existence of so-called 'Asian values', which they allege are the key to Eastern economic success. This thesis argues that issues of human rights in East-West relations are not only a consequence of well-intended concern by Western governments regarding the human rights and welfare of the citizens of East Asian nations, but are in fact dominated by and used as a pawn in interplay with more complicated questions of global power and economic relations between East and West. The thesis reviews the relevance of culture in East-West relations. In the West, particularly Samuel P. Huntington with his prediction of the Clash of Civilizations stands out. Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew has been very vocal on the Eastern side. Whereas the West tries to cope with its decrease of global influence, after hundreds of years under Western hegemonism, the East believes in an Asian way of development without interference form the West. Most of this dispute revolves around the issue of human rights. The West claims the universality of rights which in fact emphasizes political and civil rights. Western countries critizise poor human rights standards in East Asia. The East, in return, accuses the West of hypocritical policies that seek global dominance. East Asian governments assert that due to a different stage of development they have to stress first their rights to development in order to assure stability. In particular, China argues this way. The country's leadership, however, shows concern about human rights and has already improved its human rights record over the past years. This thesis analyses the dispute over human rights in a case study on Germany and China. Both countries have a mutual interest in trade relations which has conflicted with Germany's criticism of China's problematic human rights record. In 1996, the two countries clashed after the German parliament passed a resolution condemning China's treatment of Tibet. This caused a lot of damage to the Chinese-German relationship which in the course of the year went back to normality. In the light of these frictions a German human rights policy that focuses on unspectacular grass-roots support of China, for example in strengthening China's legal system, would be preferable. Such co-operation must be based on mutual respect.

Teaching persons with intellectual disabilities and limited receptive and expressive communication how to recognize and assert their human rights

Persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) are far more likely to be abused than the general population, but there is little research on teaching people with ID about their rights. The goal of this study was to teach four participants with ID and limited communication abilities about their human rights by training them on specific rights topics. The training program included icebreaker activities, instruction on rights concepts, watching and answering questions about videotaped scenarios of rights restrictions, watching and answering questions about role pl ay scenarios of rights restrictions, and responding to brief, low risk in situ rights restrictions imposed by the researchers. Participant performance did not improve significantly or consistently from baseline to training on the questions asked about the videotaped or the role play scenarios, but two of three participants demonstrated defmite improvements in responding to in situ rights restrictions.

Perceived Deservingness and the Toleration of Human Rights Violations: The Problem and a Possible Solution

Despite general endorsement of universal human rights, people continue to tolerate specific human rights violations. I conducted a two-part study to investigate this issue. For Part I, I examined whether people tolerated torture (a human rights violation) based on the morality and deservingness of the target. Participants tolerated torture more when the target had committed a highly morally reprehensible transgression. This effect was mediated by the target’s perceived deservingness for harsh treatment, and held over and above participants’ abstract support for the right to humane treatment. For Part II, hypocrisy induction was used in an attempt to reduce participants’ toleration of the torture. Participants were assigned to either the hypocrisy induction or control condition. Unexpectedly, participants who tolerated the torture more in Part I reduced their toleration the most in the control condition, possibly because of consistency and floor effects. Limitations and implications of the findings are discussed.

Accounting for Human Rights Violations Risk: Conflict Minerals Mandatory Disclosures under the Dodd Frank Act

This paper examines the equity market response to firms’ disclosure of human rights violation risk with regard to conflict mineral usage as required by Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act (the Act). This paper assesses the aggregate equity market response to regulatory events leading to the passage of the Act, the equity market reaction to voluntary early disclosures and mandatory disclosures of conflict mineral information in Form SD, as well as the determinants of the equity market response. Using a sample of 4,399 US registrants from January 1, 2008 to September 30, 2014, we document a significant negative stock market reaction to the passage of the Act and to conflict minerals disclosures on Form SD. The equity market reaction is more negative and limited to companies that source their minerals from conflict zones, companies with human rights violations, and companies with ambiguous disclosures. Taken together, the results of this study provide an economic justification for companies with poor conflict minerals practices to improve in order to avoid high costs that will arise if firms are forced to disclose human rights abuses. This paper also provides preliminary evidence that Form SD is successful in reducing the governance gap that exposes investors to unnecessary sanction, litigation and reputation risk from firms’ activities in conflict minerals usage.

Pogge -vs- Sen on Global Poverty and Human Rights

This Paper is part of a broader project examining the ways in which Amartya Sen’s “capability approach” provides a framework for thinking about global poverty as a denial or a violation of basic human rights. The Paper compares the “capability approach” as a basis for thinking about global poverty and human rights with the alternative framework developed by Thomas Pogge. Both the “capability approach” and Pogge’s theory of “severe poverty as a violation of negative duties” support the idea of “freedom from severe poverty as a basic human right”. However, there are important differences. The Paper examines the limitations of Pogge’s “apparent minimalism” and establishes the ways in which Sen’s treatment of the “capability approach” and human rights moves beyond a “minimalist normative position” whilst avoiding Pogge’s charge of “implausibility”.

NGO Duties in Relation to Human Rights. A Closer Look at One Proposal

This paper investigates the moral duties that human rights NGOs, such as Amnesty International, and development NGOs, such as Oxfam, have in relation to human rights – especially in relation to the human right to a decent standard of living. The mentioned NGOs are powerful new agents on the global scene, and according to many they might be duty-bearers in relation to human rights. However, until now their moral duties have hardly been investigated. The present paper investigates NGO duties in relation to human rights by looking in particular to a moral theory recently proposed by Leif Wenar, a theory which has some similarities to utilitarianism. In applying this theory, a case for human-rights duties of NGOs is developed mainly by considering the indispensable role that civil society plays in protecting human rights. The paper concludes that, at least, NGOs bear duties with regard to human rights when, as in certain real-life cases, NGO involvement is the only way to achieve acceptable protection against standard threats to certain goods, such as a decent standard of living.

A Synergistic Approach to Human Rights and Public Health Ethics: Effective or a Source of Conflict?

Commentaire / Commentary

Human Rights as tools for political progress

La pratique des droits de l'homme est souvent décrite comme une entreprise qui vise à établir des standards minimaux pour guider l'action des États et des individus. Dans cet article, je tente de remettre en question la position minimaliste défendue par deux auteurs, James Nickel et James Griffin, en défendant une thèse selon laquelle la philosophie et la morale ne devraient pas être limitées par la pratique et les circonstances du monde. Sans apporter une réponse précise à la question de la faisabilité des droits de l'homme tels qu'on les connaît, je soutiens que le minimalisme défendu par Griffin et Nickel n'est pas nécessaire, ni souhaitable, dans la lutte pour la défense des droits de l'homme, lutte dans laquelle la philosophie a un rôle de premier ordre à jouer.

Human Rights Violations in Police Custody

Human rights are the basic rights of every individual against the state or any other public authority as a member of the human family irrespective of any other consideration. Thus every individual of the society has the inherent right to be treated with dignity in all situations including arrest and keeping in custody by the police. Rights of an individual in police custody are protected basically by the Indian Constitution and by various other laws like Code of Criminal Procedure, Evidence Act, Indian Penal Code and Protection of Human Rights Act. The term `custody' is defined neither in procedural nor in substantive laws. The word custody means protective care. The expression `police custody' as used in sec. 27 of Evidence Act does not necessarily mean formal arrest. In India with special reference to Kerala and evolution and development of the concept of human rights and various kinds of human rights violations in police custody in different stages of history. Human rights activists and various voluntary organisations reveals that there are so many factors contributing towards the causes of violations of human rights by police. Sociological causes like ambivalent outlook of the society with respect to the use of third degree methods by the police, economic causes like meager salary and inadequate living conditions, rampant corruption in police service, unnecessary political interference in the crime investigation, work load of police personnel without any time limit and periodic holidays, unnecessary pressure from superior police officers and the general public for speedy detection causing great mental strain to the investigating officers, defective system of recruitment and training, imperfect system of investigation and lack of public co-operation are some of the factors identified in the field survey towards the causes of violations of human rights in police custody.

Right to Food, Food Security and Food Aid Under International Law, or the Limits of a right-based approach

The right to food has become a pillar of international humanitarian and human rights law. The increasing number of food-related emergencies and the evolution of the international order brought the more precise notion of food security and made a potential right to receive food aid emerge. Despite this apparent centrality, recent statistics show that a life free from hunger is for many people all over the world still a utopian idea. The paper will explore nature and content of the right to food, food security and food aid under international law in order to understand the reasons behind the substantial failure of this right-centred approach, emphasising the lack of legal effects of many food-related provisions because of excessive moral connotations of the right to be free from hunger. Bearing in mind the three-dimensional nature of food security, the paper will also suggest that all attention has been focused on the availability of food, while real difficulties arise in terms of accessibility and adequacy. Emergency situations provide an excellent example of this unbalance, as the emerging right to receive food aid focus itself on the availability of food, without improving local production and adequacy. Looking at other evolving sectors of international law, such as the protection of the environment, and particularly the safeguard of biological diversity, alternative solutions will be envisaged in order to “feed” the right to food.

Análisis de la relación entre ONG locales e internacionales para afianzar procesos de luchas políticas. Caso de estudio: Colombia Diversa y Human Rights Watch con respecto a la población LGBT entre 2004 – 2008

Esta monografía pretende establecer en que medida la relación entre ONG locales e internacionales ha logrado afianzar procesos de luchas políticas de la población LGBT a partir del estudio de la relación entre Colombia Diversa y Human Rights Watch. Los propósitos particulares que persigue la investigación giran en torno a tres puntos: primero, analizar el surgimiento y la consolidación de Colombia Diversa y el papel de las ONG en el sistema internacional; segundo, analizar la relación entre ONG locales y ONG internacionales, y tercero, analizar el efecto “bumerang” producto de la relación entre ONG nacionales e internacionales. La investigación recoge y aplica el modelo analítico de Margaret Keck y Kathryn Sikkink sobre redes trasnacionales de defensa y lo aplica al caso de estudio de Colombia Diversa y Human Rigths Watch. El estudio detallado del modelo planteado por Keck y Sikkink nos permite reconocer diferentes etapas de lucha, deslocalización e influencia o incorporación que permite mirar un número importante de variables para lograr comprender el trabajo de las ONG. Se espera que el presente texto sirva para que el lector entienda el funcionamiento de las redes trasnacionales de defensa aplicado a un caso poco estudiado, que incluye análisis de dinámicas internas e internacionales. Diferente a lo planteado hasta el momento en los textos que abordan el tema LGBT en Colombia, esta monografía no hace un análisis jurisprudencial fuerte de las sentencias que han reconocido los derechos de las parejas del mismo sexo, por el contrario pretende hacer un análisis amplio de la actuación de las ONG en general, sus acciones e incorporaciones a partir de los postulados del transnacionalismo.

Some elements for the construction of a definition of human rights

This article seeks to demystify the foundations of rights. It looks at the search for some systemic differentiation. It emphasizes effectiveness, legitimacy, the importance of convention and of political participation as common elements of the different theoretical approaches to human rights. By analysing these elements it is possible to build the term “human rights” as a concept capable of being measured accurately by studying the effectiveness of legal rules as applied to human rights in specific contexts.

The three systems for the protection of fundamental human rights in the European Union and exceptional measures against terrorism: the case of extraordinary extraditions (the CIA flights) with special reference to the Spanish case

This document is aimed first of all, make a small introductory reference on the three levels of protection of fundamental rights in Europe with the idea of helping to clarify and understand mainly to non-European systems that we are not talking. For that, based on this, going on to assess the impact generated in these systems suggest that the complaints alleged involvement of European countries in secret CIA flights to combat international terrorism, as well as investigate the responses that have given each protection of these areas to try to clarify them.