The Journal of Human Rights

Natural law is the main reason of natural human rights. According to its most famous conception, natural law is the commands of practical reason about free human behaviours to arrive ... Read More

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theory of natural rights in the intellectual tradition of Enlightenment era thinkers

mustafa saburi; Homeira Moshirzadeh

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 10 April 2023

https://doi.org/10.22096/hr.2023.1987656.1554

Abstract

The theory of natural rights was a revolutionary doctrine that gradually gained attention. The main idea of this theory is to identify the rights that humans have due to human nature. ... Read More

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Identity and the Hegemony of Universal Human Rights

Tony Evans

Volume 11, Issue 2 , January 2017, , Pages 3-24

https://doi.org/10.22096/hr.2016.29849

Abstract

Due to an unintentional mistake attribution of the author have been incorrectly inserted. The author's attribution was modified at his request. Human rights are ... Read More Due to an unintentional mistake attribution of the author have been incorrectly inserted. The author's attribution was modified at his request. Human rights are commonly portrayed as a narrative that passes through several chapters before reaching its inevitable conclusion. This narrative begins with the horror of Nazism, moves to the centrality of human rights in the UN Charter, eulogizes the Universal Declaration, celebrates the achievements of standard setting as set out in the major covenants, offers detailed analysis of methods of monitoring and, finally, speculates on the future of compliance. This narrative is sustained, firstly, by ‘naturalist’ foundationalism and, secondly, by a widely held assumptions about the move towards ‘settled norms’ in the contemporary world order. Although some pessimism is voiced over continued reports of torture, genocide, structural economic deprivation, disappearances, ethnic cleansing, political prisoners, the suppression of trade union rights, gender inequality, religious persecution, and many other violations of internationally agreed human rights, most commentators and activists tacitly adopt an optimistic stance that envisages a future rights based international order. The still prevalent naturalist account of human rights, together with a narrative that boasts ‘settled norms’, suggests that the human rights regime represents a final ‘truth’ about the essential nature of all humankind; a common identity that describes the individual in an increasingly globalized world. This paper interrogates the ‘naturalist-settled norm’ account of human rights from the perspective of power and knowledge. It begins by distinguishing between the international human rights regime and the global discourse of human rights. The former adopts a legal approach, where the neutral, value-free, unbiased and impartial nature of the law is tacitly accepted. The latter refers to human rights as social, political and economic practice, and must therefore include an account of power. From this perspective, the discourse of human rights might be said to ascribe a particular identity to human beings as agents of a particular type and kind, which serves the interests of some groups over others. While the human rights regime is presented by world leaders, commentators and the majority of academics as the legitimate articulation of norms founded upon timeless ‘truths’ about human nature, the argument presented in this paper suggests that the norms associated with the discourse of rights offer a more cogent insight into the status of human rights in the current world order. Thus, complex questions arise about power/knowledge, foundationalism, the status of international human rights law, and the politics of rights. The paper begins with an account of discourse as a meeting place for power and knowledge. A second section discusses ‘discipline’ as a mode of social organization that imbues the individual’s identity with particular ways of thinking, knowing and behaving, thereby instilling a particular social consciousness. A further section looks at the global development of ‘market disciplinary’ norms (as opposed to legal norms) that act as a guide for action. The paper concludes with a discussion on issues of human rights and identity in the age of globalization.

Rights of Identity

Daniel Kofman

Volume 11, Issue 2 , January 2017, , Pages 25-58

https://doi.org/10.22096/hr.2016.29850

Abstract

A person’s identity is their sense of who and what they are, of who stands in significant relations to them, and of what is valuable to them. This is inevitably very broad, an ... Read More A person’s identity is their sense of who and what they are, of who stands in significant relations to them, and of what is valuable to them. This is inevitably very broad, an immediate implication of which is that the concept of identity taken alone cannot do significant normative work. In some cases a person’s identity is bound up with the evil that they do or wish to do, and cannot thereby give them any right to do it. In other cases very powerful elements of a person’s identity – such as their attachment to loved ones – is certainly related to important rights, but it is not entirely clear that one needs the concept of identity to explicate or justify these rights; the deep involvement of their identity is arguably a byproduct of other important values in these cases (such as love), and those values can do the grounding work of the rights by themselves and more simply and clearly. Nevertheless, when suitably qualified, a person’s identity is central to accounting for important political rights. These ranges from rights to participate in cultural practices of one’s group, which sometimes implies duties on governments to support minorities threatened with extinction, to – at the outer limit – rights to arrange political administration. These rights are connected to both autonomy and fairness. Cultural rights are often taken either to be opposed to autonomy, or at best instrumental to personal autonomy (by providing ‘options’), but in fact, the ideal of autonomy, expressed by Mill as being the author of one’s life, requires that one be in control of significant aspects of one’s identity. Significant aspects of one’s identity are collectively determined within a culture. Cultures are not static, and their development is particularly affected by political boundaries. A fundamental right of autonomy implies, therefore, that groups be allowed, within reasonable constraints of general feasibility and stability, to arrange political boundaries to enhance their control over their identity. This shows the fundamental link between individual and collective ‘self-determination’. The right of collective self-determination is also based on fairness, since cultural majorities in existing states enjoy advantages that minorities frequently lack. Spelling out the basis of identitarian rights in autonomy contributes to determining both the upper and lower limits of this and other rights of universal scope. First, it is important to distinguish between two senses of ‘human right’. The first sense is a right that a person has simply in virtue of being a person, or simply by being a human being. A second sense is a right of cosmopolitan scope. Every right in the first sense is a right in the second sense but not vice versa. That is, every right that people have merely in virtue of being people is a right that everyone has. But not every right that everyone has (and should have) is a right that they have merely in virtue of being a human or a person. Some rights that everyone has or should have today people could not have had in the past because institutional, economic, technological or other prerequisites were lacking. Some that everyone has today they may not have in the future because other values will have superseded them in a different institutional, economic, or technological setting.

The Evolution of Natural Law and Its Impact on Construction of Electoral Rights

Javad Taghizadeh; Rezvan Fadaee

Volume 09, Issue 2 , January 2015, , Pages 49-70

Abstract

In spite of its being repetitive, the phrase "natural law" has been used with different meanings and notions. The new meaning of natural law has had important role in foundation of ... Read More

The Evolution of Natural Law and Its Impact on Construction of Electoral Rights

Javad Taghizadeh; Rezvan Fadaee

Volume 09, Issue 1 , May 2014, , Pages 49-70

Abstract

In spite of its being repetitive, the phrase "natural law" has been used with different meanings and notions. The new meaning of natural law has had important role in foundation ... Read More

Natural Rights and Human Rights

Nasser Qorban Nia

Volume 08, Issue 2 , January 2014, , Pages 41-58

Abstract

Any human rights bereft of philosophical and anthropological foundations are susceptible to weakness and vulnerability. The question as to how from a logical point of view we arrive ... Read More

Theory of Relativity in Civil Rights and Natural Rights of Man

Mohammad Javad Javid

Volume 08, Issue 2 , January 2014, , Pages 59-84

Abstract

Anthropology of the natural rights of man and its psychology can be compatible since the rights of man can be divided into two fixed and variable rights both of which play a shared ... Read More

Natural Rights and Human Rights

Nasser Qorban Nia

Volume 08, Issue 1 , April 2013, , Pages 41-58

Abstract

Any human rights bereft of philosophical and anthropological foundations are susceptible to weakness and vulnerability. The question as to how from a logical point of view we arrive ... Read More

Theory of Right – Duty

Mustafa Elsan

Volume 01, Issue 1 , April 2006, , Pages 33-52

Abstract

Studying the history of philosophic thoughts, one finds out that more attention has been paid to “right” than its opposite term, “duty”. However, this issue ... Read More

Volume 17 (2022-2023)

Volume 16 (2021-2022)

Volume 15 (2020-2021)

Volume 14 (2019-2020)

Volume 13 (2018-2019)

Volume 12 (2017-2018)

Volume 11 (2016-2017)

Volume 10 (2015-2016)

Volume 09 (2014-2015)

Volume 08 (2013-2014)

Volume 07 (2012-2013)

Volume 06 (2011-2012)

Volume 05 (2010-2011)

Volume 04 (2009-2010)

Volume 03 (2008-2009)

Volume 02 (2007-2008)

Volume 01 (2006-2007)

Main Subjects = Natural Rights

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