Global Normative Encounters: Human Rights and Their Rivals

• In Event: Populist Threats to Human Rights Institutions

Abstract

The establishment of a global human rights regime by the United Nations (UN) led to the recognition of a range of human rights, affirmation of universalism, and the birth of international human rights norms (IHRN), initiating “the Age of Rights.” However, neither the full scope of rights covered in the UN declarations and treaties, nor universalism, is accepted by all. The IHRN have encountered rival global norms. “Sovereignty of the state” is one that has been upheld by all member states. However, other international norms also gained prominence at different periods and were supported by different states and groups. Contending that human rights continue to be violated largely due to both selective treatment of human rights and the promotion of rival global norms to the extent of overruling IHRN and undermining human rights obligations, the paper examines their competition. It divides “the Age of Rights” into three periods and maps out when and how different blocs of states supported different IHRN selectively and/or invoked other global norms (e.g., neoliberalism, antiterrorism, cultural relativism, anti-pluralism) that undermine or violate different human rights.

Author

• Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat, University of Connecticut-Storrs