Human rights

Contesting the displacement thesis

Bibliographic Data

ID23167748
AuthorsPaul O'Connell, Paul O’Connell (University of London, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume69
Issue1
Pages19-35
Publication date2018-03-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNorthern Ireland Legal Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0029-3105 • E-ISSN: 2514-4936
PublisherSchool of Law, Queen's University Belfast (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.53386/nilq.v69i1.76
OpenAlexW2775477146
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited9

From within the camp of broadly left-wing or progressive critiques of human rights, one of the key objections that has emerged is what will be referred to here as ‘the displacement thesis’. In sum, this critique maintains that reliance on the language of human rights by movements for radical social change is problematic, because it tends to crowd out (or displace) other, potentially emancipatory, languages, and as a consequence distract attention from broader, structural causes of injustice and oppression. It is argued here that, while this argument is intuitively appealing, it falls short for a variety of reasons. There are, to be sure, many problems with human rights, but the mobilisation of rights language can nonetheless make an important contribution to movements for radical social change, without displacing or precluding the mobilisation of other emancipatory languages, and the challenging of deeper, structural causes of injustice.

Argument (complex analysis) · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Human rights · Injustice · Law and economics · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Social movement · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics) · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Human Rights and Development · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics

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