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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2017
Disputes over the nature, basis, and enforceability of human rights go back to early 1947, when the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) first began. Nor were the disputes limited to the drafting process. Intense arguments emerged among social scientists, philosophers, religious leaders, legal thinkers, and public figures around the world over the very idea of human rights, namely, the notion that human beings possess legally enforceable entitlements to certain protections and opportunities simply because of their common humanity.
1 Philpott, Daniel and Shah, Timothy Samuel, “In Defense of Religious Freedom: New Critics of a Beleaguered Human Right,” Journal of Law and Religion 31, no. 3 (2016) (this issue)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Merriam-Webster Dictionary online, s.v. “authoritarian,” accessed December 13, 2016, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/authoritarian.
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5 Philip Alston (Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights), Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, U.N. Doc. A/70/274 (August 4, 2015).
6 Ibid., 2. For details on World Bank studies, see ibid., 8–9, paras. 23–28.
7 Ibid., para. 59, quoting Easterly, William, The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (New York: Basic Books, 2013)Google Scholar.
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10 Moyn, The Last Utopia, 51. See Little, David, “Critical Reflections on The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History by Samuel Moyn,” in Essays on Religion and Human Rights: Ground to Stand On (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, chapter 2, for an extensive rehearsal and critique of Moyn's discussion of human rights language.
11 Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 27, 91, 300.
12 Ibid., chapter 2.
13 G.A. Res. 217 (III)A, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Dec. 10, 1948), preamble.
14 See Little, “Critical Reflections on The Last Utopia,” 72–76; David Little, “Martin Luther King, Jr.: Civil Rights, Human Rights, and Peace” (unpublished lecture).
15 Moyn mistakenly states that the words appear in the preamble (Moyn, 153).
16 Nurser, John S., For All Peoples and All Nations: The Ecumenical Church and Human Rights (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2005), 165 Google Scholar (paraphrasing Malik's speech).
17 Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 263.
18 Beitz, Charles R., “Human Dignity in the Theory of Human Rights: Nothing but a Phrase?,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 41, no. 3 (2013): 259–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 Ibid., 297.
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21 Ibid., 99.
22 Ibid., 171n27.
23 “Extracts from the Minutes of the First Full Meeting of the Joint Committee on Religious Liberty, May 6, 1942,” in ibid., appendix C, 190.
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30 Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 272.
31 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights art. 27, Dec. 19, 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 172.
32 See, for example, John Weeks, “A Rising Authoritarian Wave,” openDemocracy.net, February 3, 2014, https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/john-weeks/rising-authoritarian-wave; Odugbemi, Sina, “Authoritarianism Goes Global,” People, Spaces, Deliberation (blog) (Washington, DC: The World Bank, August 6, 2015)Google Scholar, http://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/authoritarianism-goes-global; Manu Bhagavan, “We Are Witnessing The Rise of Global Authoritarianism on A Chilling Scale,” Quartz, March 21, 2016; Pippa Norris, “It's Not Just Trump. Authoritarian Populism Is Rising across the West. Here's Why,” Washington Post, March 11, 2016; Cooley, Alexander, “Authoritarianism Goes Global,” Journal of Democracy 26, no. 3 (2015): 49–63 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Diamond, Larry, Plattner, Mark F., and Walker, Christopher, eds., Authoritarianism Goes Global: The Challenge to Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016)Google Scholar.
