On Setting Priorities among Human Rights

Priorities and human rights

“…As a consequence, the concern of some scholars arguing that a prioritisation of human rights would lead the courts to decide which rights take precedence without reluctance and hesitation can be significantly watered down. 61 On the other hand, it might be thought that the theory developed here makes no difference to substantive outcomes. This would certainly be the case on a classical realist reading of human rights law whereby rights exist only if they are implemented.…”

“…'Instrumentality' as a sorting mechanism in human rights discourses Rooted in human naturethe Maslow pyramid as a tool for prioritising human rights Scholars have been eager for a long time to find a proper way to set priorities among human rights. 46 For instance, it has been argued that negative rights should have priority over positive rights, 47 or that non-derogable rights enjoy a higher position compared to other human rights. 48 As already discussed in the previous section, others argue that a de facto hierarchy of rights already exists and, accordingly, there is no need to set explicit priorities.…”

Commentary on an article by Alberto Quintavalla & Klaus Heine. Recognizing the importance of the right to health as a prerequisite to rights hierarchization

“…Tribunaux ; Indivisibilité des droits ; Droits à la santé Résumé Ce commentaire, qui porte sur l'article de Heine et Quintavalla, intitulé « Priorités et droits de l'homme », examine la position des auteurs selon laquelle si le droit à la vie et les autres droits civils et politiques sont aussi importants que la santé et les autres droits sociaux, il est nécessaire de hiérarchiser les types de droits dans une certaine mesure, car tous les droits ne peuvent être mis en oeuvre simultanément. Ce commentaire rejoint la contestation par Heine et Quintavalla de l'argument commun selon lequel les droits civils et politiques sont d'une importance supérieure (Phillips J, 2013;Farer T, 1992;Koji T, 2001). Mais ce commentaire va plus loin, en suggérant qu'avant qu'une société ne commence à donner la priorité à la mise en oeuvre des droits de l'homme, elle doit d'abord s'assurer que le droit à la santé est effectivement aussi important que les droits civils et politiques.…”

“…To protect the right to health at the level of the population, courts have expressly drawn upon the interconnectedness among rights, explaining that the violation of the right to health could infringe on both the protection of life and the right to a clean environment 1 . The right to life has been used to enforce the right to health, but in a growing number of instances the right to health and other social rights have been used to in turn develop civil and political rights.…”

Architectures of intergenerational justice: Human dignity, international law, and duties to future generations

“…These are what have been called the "Schillerean" rights-food, drink, and shelter-along with those social rights-to work and education-that cover the minimal normative implications of human rights and human dignity taken together (Rosen 2012). While it might be a matter of debate which group of human rights are sufficiently basic to be constitutionalized (Philips 2014), there is no doubt that human dignity as a principle demands the constitutionalization of those human rights that either protect our basic embodiment and vulnerability as human beings or protect our distinctive capacities and potentialities as autonomous agents.…”