Critiques of Human Rights

Langford, Malcolm

doi:10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110316-113807

Cited by 40 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…Proponents of this school of thought point to gains in living standards globally since the adoption of landmark human rights [44]. More concretely, the ways in which the legal recognition of rights are expected to work can be organized into three mechanisms: material, political, and symbolic [45]. Briefly, rights might work through a material mechanism whereby a right is enshrined in law and made enforceable, and thus subject to challenge, through courts.…”

Section: Impact Of Human Rightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Determinants of Access to Sanitation: The Role of Human Rights and the Challenges of Measurement

Schiel

Wilson

Langford

2021

Water

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Ten years after the United Nation’s recognition of the human right to water and sanitation (HRtWS), little is understood about how these right impacts access to sanitation. There is limited identification of the mechanisms responsible for improvements in sanitation, including the international and constitutional recognition of rights to sanitation and water. We examine a core reason for the lack of progress in this field: data quality. Examining data availability and quality on measures of access to sanitation, we arrive at three findings: (1) where data are widely available, measures are not in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets, revealing little about changes in sanitation access; (2) data concerning safe sanitation are missing in more country-year observations than not; and (3) data are missing in the largest proportions from the poorest states and those most in need of progress on sanitation. Nonetheless, we present two regression analyses to determine what effect rights recognition has on improvements in sanitation access. First, the available data are too limited to analyze progress toward meeting SDGs related to sanitation globally, and especially in regions most urgently needing improvements. Second, utilizing more widely available data, we find that rights seem to have little impact on access.

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Section: Impact Of Human Rightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Determinants of Access to Sanitation: The Role of Human Rights and the Challenges of Measurement

Schiel

Wilson

Langford

2021

Water

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“…105 For those assessing the increasing calls for the human right to water, and their response, the human rights discourse was cast, in its best light, as offering "a tool for constant and empirical critique with a search for contextual solutions, rather than the basis for overarching political and policy program." 106 These lessons are salutary in the use of human rights in the post-COVID economic recovery.…”

Section: Participation In the Human Rights Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Idea of a Human Rights-Based Economic Recovery after Covid-19

Young

2020

SSRN Journal

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The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a health and economic crisis of unprecedented scope. As economists and policymakers turn to the task of recovery, protecting human rights remains intrinsically important, both morally and legally. It is also instrumental to the ends of public health and economic resilience. This Article argues that the human rights to life, health, education, social security, housing, food, water and sanitation-the so-called economic and social rights-are as essential as civil and political protections. Moreover, rather than simply ameliorate the inevitable indignities and material deprivations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of duties to respect economic and social rights can help ensure their protection in the post-COVID-19 economy. For this to occur, however, the Article suggests that the application of human rights to the economic recovery should be informed by a longer history of economic crises, assisted by both international and comparative economic and social rights frameworks, and open to the institutional reimagination that the idea of human rights helps to generate.

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“…In his powerful critique of standard-setting in human rights, Mutua (2007) strongly emphasizes the importance of power asymmetries, the ability to participate, and the capacity to own the process as well as its outcome. Langford (2018), meanwhile, analyzes how the use of several parallel terms such as claims, rights, norms and standards and the diverse perceptions they conjure up create issues of socio-political legitimacy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%