Ideas and Critiques

Question 1

4 Key Themes

Answer 1

1) Why is critique necessary?
2) The different critiques
3) Main points of critique
4) What happens after critique?

Question 2

Why is the critique of human rights so significant?

Answer 2

It is the ‘doxa’ of our age

-> everybody has something to say about it

Question 3

What did MEGRET say about human rights critiques?

Answer 3

‘Last 2 decades have witnessed the dramatic rise of human rights law as a force to be reckoned with, and with it the emergence of significant, sustained and complex critique’

Question 4

What can it be suggested that the sheer mass and variation of critiques mean?

Answer 4

It is a sign or result of the very ubiquity and success of the HR movement

Question 5

3 main forms critiques take?

Answer 5

1) Friendly = mainly positive with suggestions to ‘fix’ areas
2) Fundamental = generally negative, disagree with entire concept
3) Historical vs contemporary = different times of writing means different views favoured

Question 6

What is the fundamental point virtually all critiques focus on?

Answer 6

Gap between what has been promised and what actually happens

Question 7

Standard naritive on origin of human rights?

Answer 7

Idea that contemporary HR are a continuation of the path to progress and human emancipation

Question 8

2 big names in the fundamental conception of HR origins

Answer 8

ISHAY 
HUNT (more widely accepted)

Question 9

ISHAY on origins of HRS

Answer 9

• > ‘Forerunners’ to HR now go as far back as 1754 BC in HAMMURABI’S CODE
• > Points out tendency to have respect for human dignity etc is found in all main religions

Question 10

HUNT on origin of HRs

Answer 10

• > Started in political and cultural upheavals of 18th century
• French Revolution
• American War of Independence

Question 11

Origin of current system?

Answer 11

Post WWII -> UDHR 1948

Question 12

Why is the large scale support of the standard narrative origins of HRs important?

Answer 12

History gives the regime;

1) Legitimacy
2) Authority

Question 13

Who threw their toys out the pram and is a advocate of the REVISIONIST narrative of human rights origins?

Answer 13

MOYN

- Notably his book ‘The Last Utopia’

Question 14

MOYN’S argument in brief?

Answer 14

1) Began in 1970s, any argument that it was before this means that HRs used to be awful (SLAVERY??)
2) This makes HRs a fragile, historically contingent and almost accidental phenomena
3) Are NOT a natural and logical outgrowth of an unbroken chain of historical progress (unless you whitewash it and put a dick on it)

Question 15

Why are revisionist critiques so important?

Answer 15

Directly challenge foundation ‘myths’ and expressly politicise the entire concept

Question 16

6 big boy critiques (not exhaustive)

Answer 16

1) Realist
2) Utilitarian
3) Marxist
4) Relativist
5) Feminist
6) Post-colonial

Question 17

Realist critique famous academic?

Answer 17

BENTHAM

Question 18

BENTHAM’S quote on rejection of HR being perfect?

Answer 18

‘Nonsense on stilts’

Question 19

Realist critique in brief

Answer 19

• States won’t protect rights if not in their direct interest to do so
• USA, Russia, China etc all serial violators although party to all major agreements and commonly condem others
• ICESCR gives a recognised right to adequate standard of living including food 800m undernourished, 100m starving

Question 20

Realist critique crux

Answer 20

Rights are a hollow rhetoric or are too often used as pawns in power politics

Question 21

UTILITARIAN critique brief

Answer 21

• Political/moral philosophy born in 19th century = greatest good for the greatest number
• Reject idea of individual absolute rights trump all others (A3)
• Absolute nature of rights is central to modern HR theory

Question 22

Concerning nature of utilitarian critique?

Answer 22

Willingness to sacrifice one if it means that many will benefit
-> Opens can of worms, medical experiments/deportation to unsafe countries etc.

Question 23

MARXIST critique -> 2 main elements

Answer 23

1) Human rights under capitalism constitute narrow and ancient individualism
2) Human rights in this form can never develop meaningful freedom or emancipation

Question 24

In which essay did MARX sum up his points on human rights

Answer 24

ON THE JEWISH QUESTION

Question 25

Key quote from MARX - On The Jewish Question

Answer 25

‘the supposed rights of man go beyond the egotistic man’

Question 26

MARX on hollow nature of rights

Answer 26

• Under capitalism human rights can only ever offer formal emancipation not human emancipation
• Human freedom only achievable by transcending the capitalist system

Question 27

Difference between MARXISM and REALISM?

Answer 27

• Realist imply that there is something that could be done to breach the gap between law and reality
• Marxists argue that it is fundamentally impossible to bridge that gap under a capitalist system

Question 28

RELATIVIST/PARTICULARIST main point

Answer 28

• Legitimate differences between communities and cultures

- Wrong to impose a singular western standard worldwide

Question 29

2 big dogs of relativist critique

Answer 29

BENEDICT

DEMBOUR

Question 30

BENEDICT on relativist critique?

Answer 30

‘Morality differs in every society, and is a convenient term for socially approved habits’

Question 31

DEMBOUR on relativist critique?

Answer 31

Notes the value of it, highlights dark side of universal human rights -> imperialism

Question 32

What must relativist critique be careful to avoid?

Answer 32

Using cultural difference to defend the indefensible

• > FGM
• > Persecution of LGBT+ communities

Question 33

FEMINIST CRITIQUE general

Answer 33

• Seeks to reveal/challenge centrality of patriarchal domination of structure/operation of society
• Particulary interested with origin etc. as rights seemed exclusive to white stright men for some time

Question 34

POST COLONIAL general critique

Answer 34

• Places origin of HRs in history of colonial oppression, racial discrimination and epistemological erasure
• Highlights how non-white/non-western peoples were excluded from original HRs

Question 35

How does post-colonial narrative see HRs at the present?

Answer 35

Language of HR still operates as a mask for neo-colonial and neo-imperial interventions in a geo-political sense

Question 36

3 academics on what happens after critiques?

Answer 36

ZIZEK
ZIGON
BROWN

Question 37

ZIZEK on post-critique?

Answer 37

Suggest that the various critiques can be interpreted as a need to jettison the language and even practice of human rights in this way

Question 38

ZIGON on post-critique?

Answer 38

‘Human rights practice essentially results in both the reproduction and strengthening of the very state-governing apparatus it confronts, ultimately undermining its own aims’

Question 39

BROWN, agreeing with ZIGON

Answer 39

Arguments around human rights should ditch the current language and centre around justice, equality and democracy