Pablo Gilabert
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198713258
- eISBN:
- 9780191781704
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198713258.003.0023
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter explores the tensions between the normative ideal of human rights and the facts of asymmetric power. First, it reconstructs and assesses important power-related worries about human ...
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This chapter explores the tensions between the normative ideal of human rights and the facts of asymmetric power. First, it reconstructs and assesses important power-related worries about human rights. These worries are sometimes presented as falsifying the view that human rights exist, or at least as warranting the abandonment of human rights practice. The chapter argues that the worries do not warrant such conclusions. Instead, they motivate the identification of certain desiderata for the amelioration of human rights practice. The chapter identifies twelve such desiderata. Second, this chapter proposes a strategy for satisfying these desiderata. In particular, it suggests some ways to build empowerment into the human rights project that reduce the absolute and relative powerlessness of human rights holders, while also identifying an ethics of responsibility and solidarity for contexts in which power deficits will not dissolve. Power analysis does not debunk the human rights project. Properly articulated, it is an important tool for those pursuing it.Less
This chapter explores the tensions between the normative ideal of human rights and the facts of asymmetric power. First, it reconstructs and assesses important power-related worries about human rights. These worries are sometimes presented as falsifying the view that human rights exist, or at least as warranting the abandonment of human rights practice. The chapter argues that the worries do not warrant such conclusions. Instead, they motivate the identification of certain desiderata for the amelioration of human rights practice. The chapter identifies twelve such desiderata. Second, this chapter proposes a strategy for satisfying these desiderata. In particular, it suggests some ways to build empowerment into the human rights project that reduce the absolute and relative powerlessness of human rights holders, while also identifying an ethics of responsibility and solidarity for contexts in which power deficits will not dissolve. Power analysis does not debunk the human rights project. Properly articulated, it is an important tool for those pursuing it.
Elizabeth Frazer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198713258
- eISBN:
- 9780191781704
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198713258.003.0024
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This commentary focuses on two elements of Gilabert’s argument. These are, first, the account of and treatment of the question of the ‘existence’ or otherwise of human rights, and second, the use of ...
More
This commentary focuses on two elements of Gilabert’s argument. These are, first, the account of and treatment of the question of the ‘existence’ or otherwise of human rights, and second, the use of an intentionalist analysis of power. In both of these cases, matters seem to be more complicated than the argument fully acknowledges.Less
This commentary focuses on two elements of Gilabert’s argument. These are, first, the account of and treatment of the question of the ‘existence’ or otherwise of human rights, and second, the use of an intentionalist analysis of power. In both of these cases, matters seem to be more complicated than the argument fully acknowledges.
