Chapter Abstract
Who has rights? This chapter traces the ambiguities and contradictions that haunt the human rights discourse, which claims to be universal, but makes human beings subjects of a particular political community. The chapter examines the French ban on Muslim women wearing full-face veils in public, which was justified on the grounds that it was protecting their human rights against religious oppression, but also condemned on the grounds that it was violating their human right to religious expression. In doing so, the chapter draws attention to the gendered and racialised human rights discourses that works to dehumanise certain populations by constituting them as a potential threat to the communities that claim to protect these rights. At the same time, it considers how human rights have been used to justify intervention.
Additional web content and audio-visual materials
1. What is a Human Right? An introduction to the concept of human rights, and the United Nations framework to promote and protect human rights produced by the United Nations Office for Human Rights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpY9s1Agbsw
2. TED-Ed What are the universal human rights? This animated TED-ed talk by Benedetta Berti, an expert on armed conflict and international security, provides an interesting overview of the idea of human rights, including some of the dominant philosophical and political tensions and debates regarding this doctrine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDgIVseTkuE
3. TEDx Culture and human rights – A TEDx talk by Neha Reddy, a student of anthropology and global health, who provides interesting insights into her research on female genital mutilation / female circumcision practices in Ethiopia. The presentation urges us to consider the complex relationship between culture and human rights, and how this unfolds within the every lives of ordinary people. Students should be asked to consider at the same time what questions are raised by Neha speaking for women in Ethiopia from her privileged position: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdUf2eJMtSE
4. Who has rights? A lecture delivered by this chapter’s author (Professor Giorgio Shani) on the question of whether human rights are universal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvMSkODbM78&feature=youtu.be
Global Politics Film Club
La Haine (1995), dir. Matthieu Kassovitz
A film about three friends from different cultural backgrounds from a housing project in the banlieue, La Haine examines questions of belonging and alienation in multi-ethnic France and foreshadows the riots of 2005. However, would the camaraderie between the three friends exist today?
Seminar room activities
Activity 1 – What does it mean to be human? Students should be presented with different case study materials that demonstrate the historic evolution of understandings of what it means to be human. From theological accounts which focus upon a ‘divine spark’ or soul, to more contemporary accounts which focus upon qualities such as rationality, this exercise encourages students to reflect upon the varied social construction of notions of the human. From this point interesting and provocative questions can be raised about the foundations upon which we can make claims about a common humanity, with implications for our understandings of rights.
2. Activity 2 – Are human rights universal? This exercise asks students to consider the merits of the debate between ‘universalist’ and ‘relativist’ approaches to human rights. This debate should be situated within the context of contentious ongoing debates, such as the rights-based case for humanitarian intervention, female genital mutilation, the straight 18 ban on child soldiers, or the chapter’s case study of the ban on the display of external religious symbols in public places. Students should be encouraged to reflect upon the knowledge claims that are implicit to such positions. More generally, it may be interesting to explore the narratives and/or visual politics of advocacy campaigns on these issues, as well as the wider politics of who is able to speak on behalf of the human, and to what ends.
Assessment Questions
- Are human rights ‘universal’?
- Are some rights more important than others?
- Can rights exist without the state?
- What is the relationship between religion and rights?