Another Universalism: On the unity and diversity of Human Rights

Abstract

The spread of human rights, as well as their defense and institutionalization, have become the uncontested language, though not the reality, of global politics. This lecture poses the question of universalism in the cultural, metaphysical, moral and legal senses with reference to the contemporary debate on human rights. I argue that there is one fundamental moral right, the «right to have rights» (Hannah Arendt) of every human being to be recognized by others, and to recognize others in turn, as a person entitled to moral respect and to legally protected rights in a human community. Human rights articulate moral principles protecting the communicative freedom of individuals. Such moral principles are distinct from the legal positivization and specification of rights; nevertheless there is a necessary and not merely contingent connection between human rights as moral principles and their legal form. The unity and diversity of human rights can be defended only on the basis of a commitment to democratic forms of government, a free civil society and public sphere. «Another universalism » suggests that learning processes and conversations as well as confrontation on the extent and justification of human rights are not global exchanges.