Human Rights, Human Security and Political Theologies

Human rights, particularly in the form of international hum an rights law, intersect with religion and peace at foundational levels, as symbolically highlighted by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights(U D R). The Preamble to the Declaration proclaim s in its very first line that respect for hum an dignity is the foundation of peace, and proceeds to declare that freedom of belief, alongside freedom of speech and freedom from fear, are the highest aspirations of humankind. One could similarly highlight the special relationship between the project of human rights, peace and religion, particularly religious tolerance, in the texts of the universal, as well as regional, human rights instruments adopted since 1948, as well as the text of the Charter of the United Nations of 1945. The relationship between contemporary hum an rights, on the one hand, and religion and peace on the other, is arguably determined by the structure of international hum an rights law as a political discourse, which describes the relationship between individuals, society and the State. The visible influence of social contract theory on the wording of the Universal Declaration reminds us that from its inception, the project of hum an rights is intimately linked to religious diversity (because of the birth of modern sovereignty in European wars of religion and evangelical imperialism) and peace (because of the connection that the Declaration draws between the stability of States and respect for the hum an dignity of citizens). Against this known conceptual and historical backdrop, this paper starts with the displacement, at the global level, of hum an rights by the ambiguous discourse of hum an security, since the early 1990s. A general idea is that hum an security , which has rapidly evolved to become an organizing principle of policy-making for governments as well as non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, constitutes an alternative, sometimes deliberately advocated as such, to the discourse of hum an rights. Although received, and arguably uninformed, commonsense considers hum an rights as a threat to State sovereignty, the confrontation of hum an rights with hum an security reveals, first, how hum an rights is bound to sovereignty

کلیدواژه ها:

Human Rights ، Human Security ، Political ، Theologies