Reinvigorating human rights for the twenty-first century

Abstract

The development of international human rights law ranks among the most significant accomplishments in international relations since 1945. However, the continuing growth of human rights is not inevitable, and increasingly expansive calls for new rights or attempts to address all social problems from a human rights perspective may, ironically, undermine their legitimacy. This tendency is evidenced by the conflation of human rights with individual criminal responsibility; justification of the use of force based on appeals to protect human rights and promote democracy; marginalization of the role of government; the proliferation of new rights; and failure to appreciate the inherent flexibility of human rights norms. This article calls for returning to the notion of 'human rights' as international human rights law and maintaining the distinction between law and morality or law and politics. Recognizing that these concepts are created and enforced differently does not diminish any of them; rather, it reinforces the fact that social progress can only be achieved by appealing to law, politics and morality, not by promoting human rights as a panacea that can remedy all wrongs.