PY 4818: Human Rights

The concept of human rights:

• Moral rights are held by the right-holder in virtue of the right-holderís moral status.

• Human rights are those moral rights that are particularly morally important and basic, and that are held by every human being because they are possessed in virtue of the universal moral status of human beings.

…       All basic rights are claim rights: They are justified claims to something, and they are justified claims against some duty-bearer(s).

…       These claims are claims of basic justice, to which each person is entitled. If institutions fail to implement the duties imposed on them by human rights, they fail to be minimally just.

…       The institutional conception: human rights are claims on social institutions (Pogge).

…       The interactional conception: human rights are claims directly on the conduct of private individuals as well as social institutions (Shue, Jones, Caney).

Accounts of human rights:

• The only underlying assumption behind the claim that there are certain human rights is that each person without exception has moral status, and can therefore justifiably demand not to be treated in ways that are completely incompatible with that moral status.

…       Two main accounts of the functions of human rights:

i.    The interest theory: Human rights are protections of personsí basic interests. Human rights are justified by the importance of the interests they protect.

ii.   The will theory: Human rights are protections of personsí autonomy.

• Two main accounts of the justifications of human rights:

i. The instrumentalist account: human rights are justified because of their role in protecting and promoting personsí basic interests.

ii. The deontological account: human rights are expressive of personsí dignity and sovereignty

…       Justifying a particular human right has two components:

1. It requires establishing the importance of the object of the right.

2. It requires establishing the reasonableness of the obligations generated by the right.

• Poggeís view: human rights impose only negative duties. Persons have a ìnegative duty not to uphold injustice, not to contribute to or profit from the unjust impoverishment of othersî (p. 197); not to ìhelp uphold and impose [upon others] coercive social institutions under which they do not have secure access to the objects of their human rightsî (p. 66).

• Shue, Jones: human rights impose negative duties not to deprive people of the objects of their rights, and positive duties to protect them against such deprivations, and to assist those who lack secure access to the objects of their rights (because they have already been deprived of them, or because of factors such as natural disasters or disability).