Introduction to A Research Agenda for Human Rights: Generations of human rights scholarship

The study of human rights has grown as an interdisciplinary field over several generations, and this volume aims to help generate and guide the next wave of human rights research in a singularly troubled time. We will map the historic trajectory of scholarship on the international rights regime, the emergence of new areas of inquiry, and suggest alternative methods and perspectives for studying the pursuit of human dignity. Human rights are a set of norms, institutions, and practices to safeguard the survival, freedoms, sustenance, identity, and equality of all people. Rights imply responsibilities by authorities—whether governments, employers, social institutions, or the international community—to respect, protect, and fulfill these fundamental entitlements. While initial recognition of rights begins with threats to life, physical integrity, and freedom, the “second-generation” social and economic rights include access to essential resources and sustainable life and labor conditions. Moreover, international standards include collective and cultural rights premised on a broader concept of self-determination, and special protections for vulnerable populations such as women, children, and indigenous peoples. The 1993 United Nations Vienna Human Rights Conference endorsed by most states affirms that human rights are in principle “universal, indivisible, and interdependent.” This means that the “right to have rights” discussed by Hannah Arendt should not be restricted on the basis of culture or citizenship, that rights are inalienable regardless of a person’s behavior or status, and that the enjoyment of a civil right like free speech might depend on a social right such as education—and vice versa (United Nations 2020).