Are human rights taking over the space once occupied by politics?

By presenting political demands as human rights, we risk blurring the line between genuine rights and laudable aspirations.

By John Tasioulas

The Royal Courts of Justice building, which houses the High Court of England and Wales, is pictured in London on February 3, 2017. / AFP / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS (Photo credit should read DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Human rights occupy an ambivalent place in contemporary political life – they are both objects of unbridled enthusiasm and increasing suspicion. Enthusiasm is evident in the way the language of human rights frames one vanguard political demand after another; debates around climate change, extreme poverty, and LGBTQ rights, are genuine drivers of moral progress. Other uses of the language of human rights are farcical – including the declaration by a Chinese government official in 2006 that the people of China have a “human right” to host the Olympic Games.

Often, growing scepticism about human rights is interpreted as a “populist backlash”. Recall the threat by then US presidential candidate Donald Trump to bring back “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding” for suspected terrorists, or Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s dismissal of human rights as “manure for rascals” – “rascals” designating indigenous people, the criminally accused, and members of the LBGTQ community.