Pub Date : 2022-07-25DOI: 10.1177/09240519221115280
Laura-Stella Enonchong
This article discusses the approach of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to interpreting and applying the right to personal liberty, in particular in relation to the judicial control of the deprivation of liberty. It appears that both institutions adopt an interpretative approach that aligns with the object and purpose of the right. However, in the application to individual cases, unlike the ECtHR, the HRC fails to clarify the scope of the relevant provision of the ICCPR, specifically, the independence and impartiality of the public prosecutor as ‘an other officer authorised by law to exercise judicial power’. That situation may ultimately undermine a more effective attainment of the object and purpose of the right to personal liberty. The article argues for the HRC to adopt a more systematic approach to interpreting and applying that right in particular and the provisions of the ICCPR in general.
{"title":"Public prosecutors and the right to personal liberty: An analysis of the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights","authors":"Laura-Stella Enonchong","doi":"10.1177/09240519221115280","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221115280","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses the approach of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to interpreting and applying the right to personal liberty, in particular in relation to the judicial control of the deprivation of liberty. It appears that both institutions adopt an interpretative approach that aligns with the object and purpose of the right. However, in the application to individual cases, unlike the ECtHR, the HRC fails to clarify the scope of the relevant provision of the ICCPR, specifically, the independence and impartiality of the public prosecutor as ‘an other officer authorised by law to exercise judicial power’. That situation may ultimately undermine a more effective attainment of the object and purpose of the right to personal liberty. The article argues for the HRC to adopt a more systematic approach to interpreting and applying that right in particular and the provisions of the ICCPR in general.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"86 1","pages":"222 - 243"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83042475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-18DOI: 10.1177/09240519221113463
Aysel Küçüksu
This article marries empirical evidence from the CJEU's asylum practice with the main tenets of Martha Fineman's ‘vulnerability theory’. It uses observations from this union in support of a theoretical and an empirical argument. On the theoretical level, the discussion unfolds to show that the post-identity ‘contextual’ approach which Fineman fosters can supplement the identity-based ‘categorical’ approach that currently anchors various asylum-related procedures in the EU. On the empirical level, it argues that the CJEU's asylum jurisprudence can offer the blueprint for how the theoretical aspiration would play out in practice. Together, the two arguments establish that Fineman's work could help align asylum governance with the asylum seeker's ‘embodied and embedded’ reality in a time when mismatch between the two attracts growing critique. Overall, this work not only contributes to the debate on the theory of vulnerability, but it also expands the application of Fineman's theory as a method for understanding and framing existing case law of the CJEU.
{"title":"Fineman in Luxembourg: Empirical lessons in asylum seeker vulnerability from the CJEU","authors":"Aysel Küçüksu","doi":"10.1177/09240519221113463","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221113463","url":null,"abstract":"This article marries empirical evidence from the CJEU's asylum practice with the main tenets of Martha Fineman's ‘vulnerability theory’. It uses observations from this union in support of a theoretical and an empirical argument. On the theoretical level, the discussion unfolds to show that the post-identity ‘contextual’ approach which Fineman fosters can supplement the identity-based ‘categorical’ approach that currently anchors various asylum-related procedures in the EU. On the empirical level, it argues that the CJEU's asylum jurisprudence can offer the blueprint for how the theoretical aspiration would play out in practice. Together, the two arguments establish that Fineman's work could help align asylum governance with the asylum seeker's ‘embodied and embedded’ reality in a time when mismatch between the two attracts growing critique. Overall, this work not only contributes to the debate on the theory of vulnerability, but it also expands the application of Fineman's theory as a method for understanding and framing existing case law of the CJEU.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"3 1","pages":"290 - 310"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89582998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-14DOI: 10.1177/09240519221113121
S. Coakley, P. McAuliffe
The intentional destruction of tangible cultural heritage is commonplace in contemporary conflict. Heritage has immense social, symbolic, and spiritual value and its destruction reveals a broader attack on cultural identity and coexistence. Transitional justice (TJ) efforts have largely neglected cultural destruction as part of a wider marginalisation of cultural rights. This article considers why this is the case and argues that TJ has a meaningful role to play in engaging with issues of collective identity by countering harmful narratives of difference and recognising the legitimacy of cultural variance. It explores the ways TJ can incorporate cultural destruction within the remit of truth commissions, shape educational curricula and influence physical reconstruction of destroyed heritage. In so doing, it can give effect to the indivisibility and interdependence of civil and political, socio-economic, and cultural rights.
{"title":"Picking up the pieces: Transitional justice responses to destruction of tangible cultural heritage","authors":"S. Coakley, P. McAuliffe","doi":"10.1177/09240519221113121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221113121","url":null,"abstract":"The intentional destruction of tangible cultural heritage is commonplace in contemporary conflict. Heritage has immense social, symbolic, and spiritual value and its destruction reveals a broader attack on cultural identity and coexistence. Transitional justice (TJ) efforts have largely neglected cultural destruction as part of a wider marginalisation of cultural rights. This article considers why this is the case and argues that TJ has a meaningful role to play in engaging with issues of collective identity by countering harmful narratives of difference and recognising the legitimacy of cultural variance. It explores the ways TJ can incorporate cultural destruction within the remit of truth commissions, shape educational curricula and influence physical reconstruction of destroyed heritage. In so doing, it can give effect to the indivisibility and interdependence of civil and political, socio-economic, and cultural rights.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"22 1","pages":"311 - 332"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78887274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-07DOI: 10.1177/09240519221112554
Antonio Di Marco
The promotion of the Olympic ideals is strongly correlated with the effective protection of human rights in the sporting context. However, countless practical examples of violations of athletes’ human rights have shown how the link between sport and human rights is continuously placed under strong pressure. Taking into consideration the thesis according to which human rights are an indirect legal source of the lex sportiva, this study analyses the gaps in the protection of the fundamental rights of athletes. By verifying the potential effects on the sporting juridical bodies’ competences and on the effective implications in sporting affairs for the European Court of Human Rights, the hypothesis of an emerging incorporation of human rights in sports legal orders will also be investigated. At the end of these pages, by identifying the limits and perspectives of the judicial protection of athletes’ human rights, we should also be able to evaluate if, and to what extent, a reform of sport justice bodies is urgently needed in order to guarantee the function of sport as an instrument of peace and sustainable development, vehicle of rights, and source of social inclusion.
{"title":"Human rights in the Olympic Movement: The application of international and European standards to the lex sportiva","authors":"Antonio Di Marco","doi":"10.1177/09240519221112554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221112554","url":null,"abstract":"The promotion of the Olympic ideals is strongly correlated with the effective protection of human rights in the sporting context. However, countless practical examples of violations of athletes’ human rights have shown how the link between sport and human rights is continuously placed under strong pressure. Taking into consideration the thesis according to which human rights are an indirect legal source of the lex sportiva, this study analyses the gaps in the protection of the fundamental rights of athletes. By verifying the potential effects on the sporting juridical bodies’ competences and on the effective implications in sporting affairs for the European Court of Human Rights, the hypothesis of an emerging incorporation of human rights in sports legal orders will also be investigated. At the end of these pages, by identifying the limits and perspectives of the judicial protection of athletes’ human rights, we should also be able to evaluate if, and to what extent, a reform of sport justice bodies is urgently needed in order to guarantee the function of sport as an instrument of peace and sustainable development, vehicle of rights, and source of social inclusion.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"9 1","pages":"244 - 268"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82630865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-07DOI: 10.1177/09240519221112555
Bram Daanen
This research shows that the 1978 World Cup was a key moment in the evolution of Dutch solidarity with Argentina. Based on both oral and written sources, it reconstructs the development of this solidarity. Argentine exiles played a leading role in the process by using the attention generated by the Dutch campaign for a boycott of the tournament to denounce the human rights violations by the Argentinian dictatorship. These efforts led to the emergence of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo on the international stage, which prompted the formation of the first support group of its kind in the Netherlands. Therefore, this research casts doubt on the dictatorship's alleged success to instrumentalise the tournament and proposes to see it as a Pyrrhic victory for the regime. Finally, the findings contribute to the understanding of the emergence of a human rights discourse during the 1970s, authoritarian regime's endeavours to instrumentalise sporting events, and the importance of football in modern society.
{"title":"Football, dictatorship, and human rights: The 1978 World Cup and solidarity activism in the Netherlands for Argentina","authors":"Bram Daanen","doi":"10.1177/09240519221112555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221112555","url":null,"abstract":"This research shows that the 1978 World Cup was a key moment in the evolution of Dutch solidarity with Argentina. Based on both oral and written sources, it reconstructs the development of this solidarity. Argentine exiles played a leading role in the process by using the attention generated by the Dutch campaign for a boycott of the tournament to denounce the human rights violations by the Argentinian dictatorship. These efforts led to the emergence of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo on the international stage, which prompted the formation of the first support group of its kind in the Netherlands. Therefore, this research casts doubt on the dictatorship's alleged success to instrumentalise the tournament and proposes to see it as a Pyrrhic victory for the regime. Finally, the findings contribute to the understanding of the emergence of a human rights discourse during the 1970s, authoritarian regime's endeavours to instrumentalise sporting events, and the importance of football in modern society.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"107 1","pages":"269 - 289"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91062855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-24DOI: 10.1177/09240519221099814
Anuscheh Farahat, Ingrid Leijten
Current and future challenges are in need of an effective human rights response. In ensuring this, the question can be asked whether there is such a thing as human rights overreach, and if so, what must be done about it. This contribution deals with this question by, first, outlining various forms of human rights proliferation. For example, proliferation can take the shape of expanding the scope of rights or inventing new human rights. It then illuminates several lines of criticism that can be found in the literature. These concern issues of legalisation and of judicialisation, as well as the indeterminacy of rights. The articles that together form this Special Issue deal with aspects of proliferation and (potential) overreach from different and original angles. After introducing these, it is concluded that the overreach question is even more complex than it seems and requires careful consideration if we want to make human rights more effective and more resilient.
{"title":"Human rights overreach?","authors":"Anuscheh Farahat, Ingrid Leijten","doi":"10.1177/09240519221099814","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221099814","url":null,"abstract":"Current and future challenges are in need of an effective human rights response. In ensuring this, the question can be asked whether there is such a thing as human rights overreach, and if so, what must be done about it. This contribution deals with this question by, first, outlining various forms of human rights proliferation. For example, proliferation can take the shape of expanding the scope of rights or inventing new human rights. It then illuminates several lines of criticism that can be found in the literature. These concern issues of legalisation and of judicialisation, as well as the indeterminacy of rights. The articles that together form this Special Issue deal with aspects of proliferation and (potential) overreach from different and original angles. After introducing these, it is concluded that the overreach question is even more complex than it seems and requires careful consideration if we want to make human rights more effective and more resilient.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"26 1","pages":"83 - 97"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83080298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-12DOI: 10.1177/09240519221092595
Verena Kahl
In recent years, climate change has presented itself as a new challenge to human rights dogmatism. The present contribution examines the hurdles caused by interpreting existing regional and international human rights standards in the context of climate change, with particular reference to issues of causality, attribution, standing, and extraterritorial jurisdiction. As climate change does not neatly fit into present human rights categories, and progressive interpretation bears the risk of arbitrary and unjust results as well as overstretching the rules of interpretation, this article makes a case for an autonomous human right to climate protection without, however, losing sight of the risks of concomitant human rights overreach. It argues that a new human right to climate protection would respond to basic human needs and could allow for establishing clear legal standards that have the potential to strengthen human rights protection and secure pre-existing rights.
{"title":"A human right to climate protection – Necessary protection or human rights proliferation?","authors":"Verena Kahl","doi":"10.1177/09240519221092595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221092595","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, climate change has presented itself as a new challenge to human rights dogmatism. The present contribution examines the hurdles caused by interpreting existing regional and international human rights standards in the context of climate change, with particular reference to issues of causality, attribution, standing, and extraterritorial jurisdiction. As climate change does not neatly fit into present human rights categories, and progressive interpretation bears the risk of arbitrary and unjust results as well as overstretching the rules of interpretation, this article makes a case for an autonomous human right to climate protection without, however, losing sight of the risks of concomitant human rights overreach. It argues that a new human right to climate protection would respond to basic human needs and could allow for establishing clear legal standards that have the potential to strengthen human rights protection and secure pre-existing rights.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"35 1","pages":"158 - 179"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88770823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-07DOI: 10.1177/09240519221092631
Anuscheh Farahat
Europe's external borders have been the site of intense human rights struggles over the last decade. While States are inventing ever new practices to circumvent their human rights responsibility by not responding to rescue calls or using private actors as proxies for refoulement, human rights activists seek to expand State jurisdiction to effectively hold European governments responsible for human rights violations at their borders and on the high seas. At the same time, the rise of populist movements and increasing xenophobia have made expansive human rights interpretation to the benefit of migrants increasingly suspicious in public discourse. The question therefore arises: Does the expansion of migrants’ human rights and State responsibility bear features of ‘human rights overreach’ in the sense that human rights encroach too much on State sovereignty, which may ultimately decrease the acceptance of human rights themselves? Or is it a necessary ‘outreach’ of human rights, that is, an adaptation of human rights to new practices of border protection in order to ensure human rights’ effectiveness? This paper addresses these questions in three steps. It first briefly presents current struggles about migrants’ human rights in the Mediterranean. It then deals with the increasing critique of human rights overreach in migration matters and assesses judicial practice in reaction to increasing State pressure. The core argument finally developed in this paper is that we should respond to the allegation of overreach by advancing a more political understanding of human rights, which acknowledges the methodological limits of regressive human rights interpretation and defends the idea of human rights as a concrete utopia. The paper develops this argument with a view to the concrete case law on migration issues and suggests how courts and migration law scholars should deal with the challenges of human rights struggles regarding migration.
{"title":"Human rights and the political: Assessing the allegation of human rights overreach in migration matters","authors":"Anuscheh Farahat","doi":"10.1177/09240519221092631","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221092631","url":null,"abstract":"Europe's external borders have been the site of intense human rights struggles over the last decade. While States are inventing ever new practices to circumvent their human rights responsibility by not responding to rescue calls or using private actors as proxies for refoulement, human rights activists seek to expand State jurisdiction to effectively hold European governments responsible for human rights violations at their borders and on the high seas. At the same time, the rise of populist movements and increasing xenophobia have made expansive human rights interpretation to the benefit of migrants increasingly suspicious in public discourse. The question therefore arises: Does the expansion of migrants’ human rights and State responsibility bear features of ‘human rights overreach’ in the sense that human rights encroach too much on State sovereignty, which may ultimately decrease the acceptance of human rights themselves? Or is it a necessary ‘outreach’ of human rights, that is, an adaptation of human rights to new practices of border protection in order to ensure human rights’ effectiveness? This paper addresses these questions in three steps. It first briefly presents current struggles about migrants’ human rights in the Mediterranean. It then deals with the increasing critique of human rights overreach in migration matters and assesses judicial practice in reaction to increasing State pressure. The core argument finally developed in this paper is that we should respond to the allegation of overreach by advancing a more political understanding of human rights, which acknowledges the methodological limits of regressive human rights interpretation and defends the idea of human rights as a concrete utopia. The paper develops this argument with a view to the concrete case law on migration issues and suggests how courts and migration law scholars should deal with the challenges of human rights struggles regarding migration.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"35 1","pages":"180 - 201"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90541525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-05DOI: 10.1177/09240519221092599
Viljam Engström, Mikaela Heikkilä, Maija Mustaniemi-Laakso
There is an ongoing process of ‘vulnerabilisation’ of international protection. This process is the outcome of the establishment of special protection regimes within human rights law and of extending and specifying the scope of existing norms. Vulnerabilisation also increasingly takes place through the expansion of the sphere of international actors embedding the protection of vulnerable groups as a core element of their policymaking. This article takes hold of this ongoing vulnerabilisation and sets out to explore some of its consequences. Vulnerabilisation, the article claims, is a necessary and important element of ensuring protection of those most in need. However, the development also comes with possible downsides. Vulnerability-reasoning enables selectivity and prioritisation, which can turn into exclusion and politicisation. The vulnerabilisation phenomenon also comes with compartmentalisation and potential instrumentalisation of protection. As such, vulnerabilisation walks a tightrope between mainstreaming and overreach.
{"title":"Vulnerabilisation: Between mainstreaming and human rights overreach","authors":"Viljam Engström, Mikaela Heikkilä, Maija Mustaniemi-Laakso","doi":"10.1177/09240519221092599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221092599","url":null,"abstract":"There is an ongoing process of ‘vulnerabilisation’ of international protection. This process is the outcome of the establishment of special protection regimes within human rights law and of extending and specifying the scope of existing norms. Vulnerabilisation also increasingly takes place through the expansion of the sphere of international actors embedding the protection of vulnerable groups as a core element of their policymaking. This article takes hold of this ongoing vulnerabilisation and sets out to explore some of its consequences. Vulnerabilisation, the article claims, is a necessary and important element of ensuring protection of those most in need. However, the development also comes with possible downsides. Vulnerability-reasoning enables selectivity and prioritisation, which can turn into exclusion and politicisation. The vulnerabilisation phenomenon also comes with compartmentalisation and potential instrumentalisation of protection. As such, vulnerabilisation walks a tightrope between mainstreaming and overreach.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"931 1","pages":"118 - 136"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85594686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-04DOI: 10.1177/09240519221092588
David McGrogan
This article argues that modern human rights practice is largely imbued with an understanding of morality which is properly described as ‘anti-individual’ in the sense in which Michael Oakeshott used that phrase. In summary, this means that the contemporary human rights movement is informed by a vision of morality as something that is to be imposed on populations from above for their own good, rather than something that inheres within each individual and is contingent on free choice. This gives effect to a fundamentally managerial approach, meaning that international human rights law now largely manifests itself in obligations imposed on States to coordinate societies towards benevolent ends. This undoubtedly derives from good motives, but it means that the human rights movement for the most part buttresses an aggrandisement of the State that will happen regardless. This places it on the side of a creeping paternalistic ‘soft despotism’ – a development that is to be regretted.
{"title":"Anti-individual morality in the international human rights system","authors":"David McGrogan","doi":"10.1177/09240519221092588","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221092588","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that modern human rights practice is largely imbued with an understanding of morality which is properly described as ‘anti-individual’ in the sense in which Michael Oakeshott used that phrase. In summary, this means that the contemporary human rights movement is informed by a vision of morality as something that is to be imposed on populations from above for their own good, rather than something that inheres within each individual and is contingent on free choice. This gives effect to a fundamentally managerial approach, meaning that international human rights law now largely manifests itself in obligations imposed on States to coordinate societies towards benevolent ends. This undoubtedly derives from good motives, but it means that the human rights movement for the most part buttresses an aggrandisement of the State that will happen regardless. This places it on the side of a creeping paternalistic ‘soft despotism’ – a development that is to be regretted.","PeriodicalId":44610,"journal":{"name":"Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights","volume":"38 1","pages":"137 - 157"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86109855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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