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Introducción: Una idea general sobre los Derechos Humanos

Human rights are norms that help to protect all people everywhere from severe political,
legal, and social abuses. De ello puede extraerse la conclusión de que la
excepcionalidad que significa la realidad de los derechos humanos frente a cualquier
otro tipo de derechos estriba en que:

a) la única consideración en juego aquí es el hecho de que todos los hombres y

mujeres son poseedores de ellos en virtud de ser precisamente personas
humanas, sin ninguna otra consideración especial. Esto les dote de un
carácter inherente e incondicional que nos permite afirmar que la naturaleza
de los derechos humanos está en proteger a todos los individuos sin ninguna
distinción de edad, sexo, género, orientación sexual, nacionalidad, raza,
etnia, ideología o condición social. En consecuencia, los derechos humanos
existen en tanto que la realidad humana lo hace también y por tanto,
funcionan como fuentes de protección para todos y cada uno de los seres
humanos sin que puedan ser adquiridos, caducar, ser concedidos,
arrebatados, así como tampoco es posible renunciar a ellos.
b)

Y que deben ser ratificados y cristalizados de manera efectiva.

Examples of human rights are the right to freedom of religion, the right to a fair trial
when charged with a crime, the right not to be tortured, and the right to engage in
political activity. These rights exist in morality and in law at the national and
international levels. Historical sources for bills of rights include the Magna Carta
(1215), the English Bill of Rights (1689), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man
and the Citizen (1789), and the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution (1791).
Early philosophical sources of the idea of human rights include Francisco Suarez
(1548–1617), Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), Samuel Pufendorf (1632–1694), John Locke
(1632–1704), and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). The main sources of the contemporary
conception of human rights are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United
Nations, 1948b) and the many human rights documents and treaties that followed in
international organizations such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the
Organization of American States, and the African Union.

1. The philosophy of human rights addresses questions about the existence,

content, nature, universality, justification, and legal status of human rights. The
strong claims made on behalf of human rights (for example, that they are
universal, or that they exist independently of legal enactment as justified moral
norms) frequently provoke skeptical doubts and countering philosophical
defences. Reflection on these doubts and the responses that can be made to them
has become a sub-field of political and legal philosophy with a substantial
literature.

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 2. Historia y desarrollo

The contemporary doctrine of human rights is one of a number of universalist moral

perspectives. Human rights rest upon moral universalism and the belief in the existence
of a truly universal moral community comprising all human beings. Moral universalism
posits the existence of rationally identifiable trans-cultural and trans-historical moral
truths. The origins of moral universalism within Europe are typically associated with the
writings of Aristotle and the Stoics. Thus, in his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
unambiguously expounds an argument in support of the existence of a natural moral
order. This natural order ought to provide the basis for all truly rational systems of
justice. An appeal to the natural order provides a set of comprehensive and potentially
universal criteria for evaluating the legitimacy of actual 'man-made' legal systems. In
distinguishing between ‘natural justice' and 'legal justice’, Aristotle writes, ‘the natural
is that which has the same validity everywhere and does not depend upon acceptance.'
(Nicomachean Ethics, 189) Thus, the criteria for determining a truly rational system of
justice pre-exist social and historical conventions. 'Natural justice' pre-exists specific
social and political configurations. The means for determining the form and content of
natural justice is the exercise of reason free from the distorting effects of mere prejudice
or desire. This basic idea was similarly expressed by the Roman Stoics, such as Cicero
and Seneca, who argued that morality originated in the rational will of God and the
existence of a cosmic city from which one could discern a natural, moral law whose
authority transcended all local legal codes. The Stoics' argued that this ethically
universal code imposed upon all of us a duty to obey the will of god. The Stoics thereby
posited the existence of a universal moral community effected through our shared
relationship with god. The belief in the existence of a universal moral community was
maintained in Europe by Christianity over the ensuing centuries. While some have
discerned intimations towards the notion of rights in the writings of Aristotle, the Stoics,
and Christian theologians, a concept of rights approximating that of the contemporary
idea of human rights most clearly emerges during the 17th. And 18th. Centuries in
Europe and the so-called doctrine of natural law.

The basis of the doctrine of natural law is the belief in the existence of a natural
moral code based upon the identification of certain fundamental and objectively
verifiable human goods. Our enjoyment of these basic goods is to be secured by our
possession of equally fundamental and objectively verifiable natural rights. Natural
law was deemed to pre-exist actual social and political systems. Natural rights were
thereby similarly presented as rights individuals possessed independently of society
or polity. Natural rights were thereby presented as ultimately valid irrespective of
whether they had achieved the recognition of any given political ruler or assembly.
The quintessential exponent of this position was the 17th. Century philosopher John
Locke and, in particular, the argument he outlined in his Two Treatises of
Government (1688). At the centre of Locke's argument is the claim that individuals
possess natural rights, independently of the political recognition granted them by the
state. These natural rights are possessed independently of, and prior to, the
formation of any political community. Locke argued that natural rights flowed from
natural law. Natural law originated from God. Accurately discerning the will of God
provided us with an ultimately authoritative moral code. At root, each of us owes a

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 duty of self-preservation to God. Our duty of self-preservation to god entailed the
necessary existence of basic natural rights to life, liberty, and property. The natural
rights to life, liberty, and property set clear limits to the authority and jurisdiction of
the State.

Kant provides a means for justifying human rights as the basis for self-
determination grounded within the authority of human reason. Kant's moral
philosophy is based upon an appeal to the formal principles of ethics, rather than,
for example, an appeal to a concept of substantive human goods. For Kant, the
determination of any such goods can only proceed from a correct determination of
the formal properties of human reason and thus do not provide the ultimate means
for determining the correct ends, or object, of human reason. Kant's moral
philosophy begins with an attempt to correctly identify those principles of reasoning
that can be applied equally to all rational persons, irrespective of their own specific
desires or partial interests. In this way, Kant attaches a condition of universality to
the correct identification of moral principles. For him, the basis of moral reasoning
must rest upon a condition that all rational individuals are bound to assent to. Doing
the right thing is thus not determined by acting in pursuit of one's own interests or
desires, but acting in accordance with a maxim which all rational individuals are
bound to accept. Kant terms this the categorical imperative, which he formulates in
the following terms, 'act only on that maxim through which you can at the same
time will that it should become a universal law.' (1948:84). Kant argues that this
basic condition of universality in determining the moral principles for governing
human relations is a necessary expression of the moral autonomy and fundamental
equality of all rational individuals.

The philosophical ideas defended by the likes of Locke and Kant have come to be
associated with the general Enlightenment project initiated during the 17th. and
18th. Centuries, the effects of which were to extend across the globe and over
ensuing centuries. Ideals such as natural rights, moral autonomy, human dignity and
equality provided a normative bedrock for attempts at re-constituting political
systems, for overthrowing formerly despotic regimes and seeking to replace them
with forms of political authority capable of protecting and promoting these new
emancipatory ideals. These ideals effected significant, even revolutionary, political
upheavals throughout the 18th. Century, enshrined in such documents as the United
States' Declaration of Independence and the French National Assembly’s
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Though one could argue that the
conceptual prerequisites for the defence of human rights had long been in place, a
full Declaration of the doctrine of human rights only finally occurred during the
20th. Century and only in response to the most atrocious violations of human rights,
exemplified by the Holocaust. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10th. December 1948 and was
explicitly motivated to prevent the future occurrence of any similar atrocities. The
Declaration itself goes far beyond any mere attempt to reassert all individuals'
possession of the right to life as a fundamental and inalienable human right. Taken
together these various Declarations, conventions and covenants comprise the
contemporary human rights doctrine and embody both the belief in the existence of

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 a universally valid moral order and a belief in all human beings' possession of
fundamental and equal moral status, enshrined within the concept of human rights.

Many writers on human rights agree in the identification of three generations of

human rights. First generation rights consist primarily of rights to security, property,
and political participation. These are most typically associated with the French and
US Declarations. Second generation rights are construed as socio-economic rights,
rights to welfare, education, and leisure, for example. These rights largely originate
within the UDHR. The final and third generation of rights are associated with such
rights as a right to national self-determination, a clean environment, and the rights of
indigenous minorities. This generation of rights really only takes hold during the last
two decades of the 20th. Century but represents a significant development within the
doctrine of human rights generally.

While the full significance of human rights may only be finally dawning on some
people, the concept itself has a history spanning over two thousand years. The
development of the concept of human rights is punctuated by the emergence and
assimilation of various philosophical and moral ideals and appears to culminate, at
least to our eyes, in the establishment of a highly complex set of legal and political
documents and institutions, whose express purpose is the protection and promotion
of the fundamental rights of all human beings everywhere. Few should
underestimate the importance of this particular current of human history.

3. Características y funciones de los derechos humanos

(1) Human rights are rights. Lest we miss the obvious, human rights are rights (see the
entry on rights and Cruft 2012). Most if not all human rights are claim rights that
impose duties or responsibilities on their addressees or dutybearers. Rights focus on a
freedom, protection, status, or benefit for the rightholders (Beitz 2009). The duties
associated with human rights often require actions involving respect, protection,
facilitation, and provision. Rights are usually mandatory in the sense of imposing duties
on their addressees, but some legal human rights seem to do little more than declare
high-priority goals and assign responsibility for their progressive realization. One can
argue, of course, that goal-like rights are not real rights, but it may be better to
recognize that they comprise a weak but useful notion of a right (See Beitz 2009 for a
defense of the view that not all human rights are rights in a strong sense. And see
Feinberg 1973 for the idea of “manifesto rights”). A human rights norm might exist as
(a) a shared norm of actual human moralities, (b) a justified moral norm supported by
strong reasons, (c) a legal right at the national level (where it might be referred to as a
“civil” or “constitutional” right), or (d) a legal right within international law.

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(2) Human rights are plural. If someone accepted that there are human rights but held
that there is only one of them, this might make sense if she meant that there is one
abstract underlying right that generates a list of specific rights (See Dworkin 2011 for a
view of this sort). But if this person meant that there is just one such specific right such
as the right to peaceful assembly this would be a highly revisionary view. Human rights
address a variety of specific problems such as guaranteeing fair trials, ending slavery,
ensuring the availability of education, and preventing genocide. Some philosophers
advocate very short lists of human rights but nevertheless accept plurality (see Joshua
Cohen 2004 and Ignatief 2004).

(3) Human rights are universal. All living humans—or perhaps all living persons—have
human rights. One does not have to be a particular kind of person or a member of some
specific nation or religion to have human rights. Included in the idea of universality is
some conception of independent existence. People have human rights independently of
whether they are found in the practices, morality, or law of their country or culture. This
idea of universality needs several qualifications, however. First, some rights, such as the
right to vote, are held only by adult citizens or residents and apply only to voting in
one's own country. Second, the human right to freedom of movement may be taken
away temporarily from a person who is convicted of committing a serious crime. And
third, some human rights treaties focus on the rights of vulnerable groups such as
minorities, women, indigenous peoples, and children.

(4) Human rights have high-priority. Maurice Cranston held that human rights are
matters of “paramount importance” and their violation “a grave affront to justice”
(Cranston 1967). If human rights did not have high priority they would not have the
ability to compete with other powerful considerations such as national stability and
.security, individual and national self-determination, and national and global prosperity.
High priority does not mean, however, that human rights are absolute. As James Griffin
says, human rights should be understood as “resistant to trade-offs, but not too resistant”

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(Griffin 2008). Further, there seems to be priority variation within human rights. For
example, when the right to life conflicts with the right to privacy, the latter will
generally be outweighed.

Let's now consider five other features or functions that might be added.

Should human rights be defined as inalienable? Inalienability does not mean that rights
are absolute or can never be overridden by other considerations. Rather it means that its
holder cannot lose it temporarily or permanently by bad conduct or by voluntarily
giving it up. It is doubtful that all human rights are inalienable in this sense. One who
endorses both human rights and imprisonment as punishment for serious crimes must
hold that people's rights to freedom of movement can be forfeited temporarily or
permanently by just convictions of serious crimes. Perhaps it is sufficient to say that
human rights are very hard to lose. (For a stronger view of inalienability, see Donnelly
2003, 10).

Should human rights be defined as minimal rights? A number of philosophers have

proposed the view that human rights are minimal in the sense of not being too numerous
(a few dozen rights rather than hundreds or thousands), and not being too demanding
(See Joshua Cohen 2004, Ignatieff 2005, Nickel 2007, and Rawls 1999). Their views
suggest that human rights are—or should be—more concerned with avoiding the worst
than with achieving the best. Henry Shue suggests that human rights concern the “lower
limits on tolerable human conduct” rather than “great aspirations and exalted ideals”
(Shue 1996). When human rights are modest standards they leave most legal and policy
matters open to democratic decision-making at the national and local levels. This allows
them to have high priority, to accommodate a great deal of cultural and institutional
variation, and to leave open a large space for democratic decision-making at the national
level. Still, there is no contradiction in the idea of an extremely expansive list of human
rights and hence minimalism is not a defining feature of human rights (for criticism of
the view that human rights are minimal standards see Brems 2009 and Raz 2010).
Minimalism is best seen as a normative prescription for what international human rights
should be. Moderate forms of minimalism have considerable appeal, but not as part of
the definition of human rights.

Should human rights be defined as always including moral rights? Philosophers coming
to human rights theory from ethics sometimes assume that human rights must be, at
bottom, moral rather than legal rights. There is no contradiction, however, in people
saying that they believe in human rights, but only when they are legal rights at the
national or international levels. As Louis Henkin observed, “Political forces have
mooted the principal philosophical objections, bridging the chasm between natural and
positive law by converting natural human rights into positive legal rights” (Henkin
1978). Theorists who insist that the only human rights are legal rights may find,
however, that the interpretations they can give of characteristics such as the universality
of human rights and of their independent existence are fairly weak.

Should human rights be defined in terms of serving some sort of political function?
Instead of seeing human rights as grounded in some sort of independently existing
moral reality, a theorist might see them as the norms of a highly useful political practice

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that humans have constructed or evolved. Such a view would see the idea of human
rights as playing various political roles at the national and international levels and as
serving thereby to protect urgent human or national interests. These political roles might
include providing standards for international evaluations of how governments treat their
people and as helping to specify when use of economic sanctions or military
intervention is permissible. There are powerful advocates of this sort of view (see Rawls
1999 and Beitz 2009; see also the entry on John Rawls). These theorists would add to
the four defining elements above some set of political roles or functions. This view may
be plausible for the very salient international human rights that have emerged in
international law and politics in the last fifty years. But human rights can exist and
function in contexts not involving international scrutiny and intervention such as a
world with only one state. Imagine, for example, that an asteroid strike had killed
everyone in all countries except New Zealand, leaving it the only state in existence.
Surely the idea of human rights as well as many dimensions of human rights practice
could continue in New Zealand, even though there would be no international relations,
law, or politics (for an argument of this sort see Tasioulas 2012). And if a few people
were discovered to have survived in Iceland and were living without a government or
state, New Zealanders would know that human rights governed how these people should
be treated even though they were stateless. How deeply the idea of human rights must
be rooted in international law and practice should not be settled by definitional fiat. We
can allow, however, that the sorts of political functions that Rawls and Beitz describe
are typically served by international human rights today.

4. EL estatus de los derechos humanos: ¿Derechos legales o derechos morales?

The distinction drawn between moral rights and legal rights as two separate categories
of rights is of fundamental importance to understanding the basis and potential
application of human rights. Legal rights refer to all those rights found within existing
legal codes. A legal right is a right that enjoys the recognition and protection of the law.
Questions as to its existence can be resolved by simply locating the relevant legal
instrument or piece of legislation. A legal right cannot be said to exist prior to its
passing into law and the limits of its validity are set by the jurisdiction of the body
which passed the relevant legislation. An example of a legal right would be my
daughter's legal right to receive an adequate education, as enshrined within the United
Kingdom's Education Act (1944). Suffice it to say, that the exercise of this right is
limited to the United Kingdom. My daughter has no legal right to receive an adequate
education from a school board in Southern California. Legal positivists argue that the
only rights that can be said to legitimately exist are legal rights, rights that originate
within a legal system. On this view, moral rights are not rights in the strict sense, but are
better thought of as moral claims, which may or may not eventually be assimilated
within national or international law. For a legal positivist, such as the 19th. Century
legal philosopher Jeremy Bentham, there can be no such thing as human rights existing
prior to, or independently from legal codification. For a positivist determining the
existence of rights is no more complicated than locating the relevant legal statute or
precedent. In stark contrast, moral rights are rights that, it is claimed, exist prior to and
independently from their legal counterparts. The existence and validity of a moral right

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is not deemed to be dependent upon the actions of jurists and legislators. Many people
argued, for example, that the black majority in apartheid South Africa possessed a moral
right to full political participation in that country's political system, even though there
existed no such legal right. What is interesting is that many people framed their
opposition to apartheid in rights terms. What many found so morally repugnant about
apartheid South Africa was precisely its denial of numerous fundamental moral rights,
including the rights not to be discriminated against on grounds of colour and rights to
political participation, to the majority of that country's inhabitants. This particular line
of opposition and protest could only be pursued because of a belief in the existence and
validity of moral rights. A belief that fundamental rights which may or may not have
received legal recognition elsewhere, remained utterly valid and morally compelling
even, and perhaps especially, in those countries whose legal systems had not recognized
these rights. A rights-based opposition to apartheid South Africa could not have been
initiated and maintained by appeal to legal rights, for obvious reasons. No one could
legitimately argue that the legal political rights of non-white South Africans were being
violated under apartheid, since no such legal rights existed. The systematic denial of
such rights did, however, constitute a gross violation of those peoples' fundamental
moral rights.

From the above example it should be clear that human rights cannot be reduced to, or
exclusively identified with legal rights. The legal positivist's account of justified law
excludes the possibility of condemning such systems as apartheid from a rights
perspective. It might, therefore, appear tempting to draw the conclusion that human
rights are best identified as moral rights. After all, the existence of the UDHR and
various International Covenants, to which South Africa was not a signatory in most
cases, provided opponents of apartheid with a powerful moral argument. Apartheid was
founded upon the denial of fundamental human rights. Human rights certainly share an
essential quality of moral rights, namely, that their valid existence is not deemed to be
conditional upon their being legally recognized. Human rights are meant to apply to all
human beings everywhere, regardless of whether they have received legal recognition
by all countries everywhere. Clearly, there remain numerous countries that wholly or
partially exclude formal legal recognition to fundamental human rights. Supporters of
human rights in these countries insist that the rights remain valid regardless, as
fundamental moral rights. The universality of human rights positively entails such
claims. The universality of human rights as moral rights clearly lends greater moral
force to human rights. However, for their part, legal rights are not subject to disputes as
to their existence and validity in quite the way moral rights are. It would be a mistake to
exclusively identify human rights with moral rights. Human rights are better thought of
as both moral rights and legal rights. Human rights originate as moral rights and their
legitimacy is necessarily dependent upon the legitimacy of the concept of moral rights.
A principal aim of advocates of human rights is for these rights to receive universal
legal recognition. This was, after all, a fundamental goal of the opponents of apartheid.
Human rights are best thought of, therefore, as being both moral and legal rights. The
legitimacy claims of human rights are tied to their status as moral rights. The practical
efficacy of human rights is, however, largely dependent upon their developing into legal
rights. In those cases where specific human rights do not enjoy legal recognition, such
as in the example of apartheid above, moral rights must be prioritised with the intention

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that defending the moral claims of such rights as a necessary prerequisite for the
eventual legal recognition of the rights in question.

5 . Diferentes concepciones teóricas de los derechos humanos

A pesar de la gran aceptación tanto moral como legal de la que gozan los derechos humanos a
nivel mundial, sin embargo siguen existiendo ciertas divergencias en el modo de concebir su
naturaleza. Aunque las líneas maestras que vertebran la estructura básica de los derechos
humanos han quedado explicitadas más arriba, el trabajo de Thomas Pogge ha ayudado a
entender la perspectiva desde dos grandes núcleos conceptuales en su distinción entre la
concepción “institucional” y la concepción “interactiva”.

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b. The interests theory approach

Advocates of the interests theory approach argue that the principal function of human
rights is to protect and promote certain essential human interests. Securing human
beings' essential interests is the principal ground upon which human rights may be
morally justified. The interests approach is thus primarily concerned to identify the
social and biological prerequisites for human beings leading a minimally good life. The
universality of human rights is grounded in what are considered to be some basic,
indispensable, attributes for human well-being, which all of us are deemed necessarily
to share. Take, for example, an interest each of us has in respect of our own personal
security. This interest serves to ground our claim to the right. It may require the
derivation of other rights as prerequisites to security, such as the satisfaction of basic
nutritional needs and the need to be free from arbitrary detention or arrest, for example.
The philosopher John Finnis provides a good representative of the interests theory
approach. Finnis (1980) argues that human rights are justifiable on the grounds of their
instrumental value for securing the necessary conditions of human well-being. He
identifies seven fundamental interests, or what he terms 'basic forms of human good', as
providing the basis for human rights. These are: life and its capacity for development;
the acquisition of knowledge, as an end in itself; play, as the capacity for recreation;
aesthetic expression; sociability and friendship; practical reasonableness, the capacity
for intelligent and reasonable thought processes; and finally, religion, or the capacity for
spiritual experience. According to Finnis, these are the essential prerequisites for human
well-being and, as such, serve to justify our claims to the corresponding rights, whether
they be of the claim right or liberty right variety.

Other philosophers who have defended human rights from an interests-based approach
have addressed the question of how an appeal to interests can provide a justification for
respecting and, when necessary, even positively acting to promote the interests of

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others. Such questions have a long heritage in western moral and political philosophy
and extend at least as far back as the 17th. Century philosopher Thomas Hobbes.
Typically, this approach attempts to provide what James Nickel (1987:84) has termed
'prudential reasons' in support of human rights. Taking as the starting point the claim
that all human beings possess basic and fundamental interests, advocates of this
approach argue that each individual owes a basic and general duty to respect the rights
of every other individual. The basis for this duty is not mere benevolence or altruism,
but individual self-interest. As Nickel writes, 'a prudential argument from fundamental
interests attempts to show that it would be reasonable to accept and comply with human
rights, in circumstances where most others are likely to do so, because these norms are
part of the best means for protecting one's fundamental interests against actions and
omissions that endanger them.' (ibid). Protecting one’s own fundamental interests
requires others' willingness to recognize and respect these interests, which, in turn,
requires reciprocal recognition and respect of the fundamental interests of others. The
adequate protection of each individual's fundamental interests necessitates the
establishment of a co-operative system, the fundamental aim of which is not to promote
the common good, but the protection and promotion of individuals' self-interest.

For many philosophers the interests approach provides a philosophically powerful

defence of the doctrine of human rights. It has the apparent advantage of appealing to
human commonality, to those attributes we all share, and, in so doing, offers a relatively
broad-based defence of the plethora of human rights considered by many to be
fundamental and inalienable. The interests approach also provides for the possibility of
resolving some of the potential disputes which can arise over the need to prioritise some
human rights over others. One may do this, for example, by hierarchically ordering the
corresponding interests identified as the specific object, or content, of each right.

However, the interests approach is subject to some significant criticisms. Foremost

amongst these is the necessary appeal interests' theorists make to some account of
human nature. The interests-approach is clearly operating with, at the very least, an
implicit account of human nature. Appeals to human nature have, of course, proven to
be highly controversial and typically resist achieving the degree of consensus required
for establishing the legitimacy of any moral doctrine founded upon an account of human
nature. For example, combining the appeal to fundamental interests with the aspiration
of securing the conditions for each individual leading a minimally good life would be
complicated by social and cultural diversity. Clearly, as the economic philosopher
Amartya Sen (1999) has argued, the minimal conditions for a decent life are socially
and culturally relative. Providing the conditions for leading a minimally good life for
the residents of Greenwich Village would be significantly different to securing the same
conditions for the residents of a shanty town in Southern Africa or South America.
While the interests themselves may be ultimately identical, adequately protecting these
interests will have to go beyond the mere specification of some purportedly general
prerequisites for satisfying individuals' fundamental interests. Other criticisms of the
interests approach have focused upon the appeal to self-interest as providing a coherent
basis for fully respecting the rights of all human beings. This approach is based upon the
assumption that individuals occupy a condition of relatively equal vulnerability to one
another. However, this is simply not the case. The model cannot adequately defend the
claim that a self-interested agent must respect the interests of, for example, much less

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powerful or geographically distant individuals, if she wishes to secure her own interests.
On these terms, why should a purely self-interested and over-weight individual in, say,
Los Angeles or London, care for the interests of a starving individual in some distant
and impoverished continent? In this instance, the starving person is not in a position to
affect their overweight counterpart's fundamental interests. The appeal to pure self-
interest ultimately cannot provide a basis for securing the universal moral community at
the heart of the doctrine of human rights. It cannot justify the claims of universal human
rights. An even more philosophically oriented vein of criticism focuses upon the
interests' based approach alleged neglect of constructive human agency as a
fundamental component of morality generally. Put simply, the interests-based approach
tends to construe our fundamental interests as pre-determinants of human moral agency.
This can have the effect of subordinating the importance of the exercise of freedom as a
principal moral ideal. One might seek to include freedom as a basic human interest, but
freedom is not constitutive of our interests on this account. This particular concern lies
at the heart of the so-called 'will approach' to human rights.

LA DIGNIDAD HUMANA

The most influential position on these issues is found in the moral philosophy of
Immanuel Kant (1785, 1788, 1797). Indeed, most contemporary discussions of respect
for persons explicitly claim to rely on, develop, or challenge some aspect of Kant's
ethics. Central to Kant's ethical theory is the claim that all persons are owed respect just
because they are persons, that is, free rational beings. To be a person is to have a status
and worth that is unlike that of any other kind of being: it is to be an end in itself with
dignity. And the only response that is appropriate to such a being is respect. Respect is
the acknowledgment in attitude and conduct of the dignity of persons as ends in
themselves. Respect for such beings is not only appropriate but also morally and
unconditionally required: the status and worth of persons is such that they must always
be respected. Formulation of the Categorical Imperative, which is the supreme principle
of morality, commands that our actions express due respect for the worth of persons:
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or the person of
any other, never simply as a means but always at the same time as an end”
(Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals)
(1785/1996, 4:429). Our fundamental moral obligation, then, is to respect persons;
morally right actions are thus those that express respect for persons as ends in
themselves, while morally wrong actions are those that express disrespect or contempt
for persons by not valuing them as ends in themselves (Wood 1999). In addition to this
general commandment, Kant argues that there are also more specific duties of respect
for other persons and self-respect, to which we'll return. For now, we must address the
question.

To be an end is to have some kind of value or worth. Most things have value as the
objects of our desires, interests, or affections; they are the ends we pursue or produce,

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our subjective ends. Its worth is intrinsic to it, unconditional, incomparable, and
objective. Kant calls this distinctive worth which only ends in themselves possess
“dignity.” In Kant's theory of value dignity is the supreme value; thus ends in
themselves are to be valued morally above all other entities.

Dignity is also incomparable worth: it can't be compared with, exchanged for, or

replaced by any other value, whereas the very purpose of a price is to establish
comparative value. And dignity is absolute or objective worth, which means that it is a
value that everyone has compelling reason to acknowledge, regardless of their
antecedent desires, interests, or affections. This brings us to a second sense in which
persons are ends in themselves. For “end” can also mean a limit or constraint on action
(as the end of the road puts a limit on our our travel). It puts an absolute limit on how
we can treat them. To respect persons is thus to regard them as absolutely,
unconditionally, and incomparably valuable, to value them in themselves and not just in
comparison to others or insofar as they are valuable to someone or could be useful as a
means for furthering some purpose, and to acknowledge in a practical way that their
dignity imposes absolute constraints on our treatment of them.

The capacity to set ends, which is the power of rational choice, is the capacity to value
things through rational judgment: to determine, under the influence of reason
independently of antecedent instincts or desires, that something is valuable or important,
that it is worth seeking or valuing. It is also, thereby, the capacity to value ends in
themselves, and so it includes the capacity for respect (Velleman 1999). The capacity to
be autonomous is the capacity to be self-legislating and self-governing, that is, (a) the
capacity to legislate moral laws that are valid for all rational beings through one's
rational willing by recognizing, using reason alone, what counts as a moral obligation,
and (b) the capacity then to freely resolve to act in accordance with moral laws because
they are self-imposed by one's own reason and not because one is compelled to act by
any forces external to one's reason and will, including one's own desires and
inclinations. The capacity to be autonomous is thus also the capacity to freely direct,
shape, and determine the meaning of one's own life, and it is the condition for moral
responsibility. But why does the possession of these capacities make persons ends in
themselves? The capacity for autonomy is the source, on the one hand, both of the
obligatoriness of moral law and of responsible moral actions, and on the other, of all
realized human goodness. As the sources of all value and of morality itself, then, these
rational capacities are the basis of the absolute worth or dignity of rational beings. It is
thus not as members of the biological species homo sapiens that we have dignity and so
are owed moral recognition respect, but as rational beings who are capable of moral
agency.

There are several important consequences of this view regarding the scope of
recognition respect for persons. First, while all normally functioning human beings
possess the rational capacities that ground recognition respect, there can be humans in
whom these capacities are altogether absent and who therefore, on this view, are not
persons and are not owed respect. Second, these capacities may be possessed by beings
who are not biologically human, and such beings would also be persons with dignity
whom we are morally obligated to respect. Third, because dignity is an absolute worth
grounded in the rational capacities for morality, it is in no way conditional on how well

13
or badly those capacities are exercised, on whether a person acts morally or has a
morally good character or not. Thus, dignity cannot be diminished or lost through vice
or morally bad action, nor can it be increased through virtue or morally correct action.
Because personhood and dignity are not matters of degree, neither is the recognition
respect owed to persons. Once a person, always a person (barring, say, brain death), and
so individuals cannot forfeit dignity or the right to recognition respect no matter what
they do. It follows that even the morally worst individuals must still be regarded as ends
in themselves and treated with respect. Of course, wrongdoing may call for punishment
and may be grounds for forfeiting certain rights, but it is not grounds for losing dignity
or for regarding the wrongdoer as worthless scum. Recognition respect is not something
individuals have to earn or might fail to earn, but something they are owed simply
because they are rational beings. Finally, because dignity is absolute and incomparable,
the worth of all rational beings is equal.

2.2 Human Agency as the Basis of Human Rights

A justification for human rights—whether teleological, consequentialist, deontological,

or something else—should justify the main features of human rights including their
mandatory character, their universality, and their high priority. This makes the
construction of a good justification a daunting task.

Grounding human rights in human agency and autonomy has had strong advocates in
recent decades. In Human Rights: Essays on Justification and Application (1982) Alan<
Gewirth offered an agency-based justification for human rights. He argued that denying
the value of successful agency and action is not an option for a human being; having a
life requires regarding the indispensable conditions of agency and action as necessary
goods. Abstractly described, these conditions of successful agency are freedom and
well-being. A prudent rational agent who must have freedom and well-being will assert
a “prudential right claim” to them. Having demanded that others must respect her
freedom and well-being, consistency requires her to recognize and respect the freedom
and well-being of other persons. Since all other agents are in exactly the same position
as she is of desperately needing freedom and well-being, consistency requires her to
recognize and respect their freedom and well-being. She “logically must accept” that
other people as agents have equal rights to freedom and well-being. These two abstract
rights work alone and together to generate equal specific human rights of familiar sorts
(Gewirth 1978, 1982, 1996). Gewirth's aspiration was to provide an argument for
human rights that applies to all human agents and that is inescapable. From a few hard-
to-dispute facts and a principle of consistency he thinks we can derive two generic
human rights—and from them, a list of more determinate rights. Gewirth's views have
generated a large critical literature (see Beyleveld 1991 and Boylan 1999).

A more recent attempt to base human rights on agency and autonomy is found in James
Griffin's book, On Human Rights 2008. Griffin does not share Gewirth's goal of
providing a logically inescapable argument for human rights, but his overall view shares
key structural features with Gewirth's. These include starting the justification with the

14
unique value of agency and autonomy, postulating some abstract rights, and making a
place for a right to well-being within an agency-based approach.

In the current dispute between “moral” (or “orthodox”) and “political” conceptions of
human rights, Griffin strongly sides with those who see human rights as fundamentally
moral rights (on this debate see Gilabert 2011 and Liao and Etinson 2012). Their
defining role, in Griffin's view, is protecting people's ability to form and pursue
conceptions of a worthwhile life—a capacity that Griffin variously refers to as
“autonomy,” “normative agency,” and “personhood.” This ability to form, revise, and
pursue conceptions of a worthwhile life is taken to be of paramount value, the exclusive
source of human dignity, and thereby the basis of human rights (Griffin 2008: 27–44).
Griffin holds that people value this capacity “especially highly, often more highly than
even our happiness.”

“Practicalities” also shape human rights in Griffin's view. He describes practicalities as

“a second ground” of human rights. They prescribe making the boundaries of rights
clear by avoiding “too many complicated bends,” enlarging rights a little to give them
safety margins, and consulting facts about human nature and the nature of society.
Accordingly, the justifying generic function that Griffin assigns to human rights is
protecting normative agency while taking account of practicalities.

Griffin claims that human rights suffer even more than other normative concepts from
an “indeterminacy of sense” that makes them vulnerable to proliferation (Griffin 2008,
14–15). He thinks that tying all human rights to the single value of normative agency
while taking account of practicalities is the best way to remedy this malady. He
criticizes the frequent invention of new human rights and the “ballooning of the
content” of established rights. Still, Griffin is friendly towards most of the rights in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Beyond this, Griffin takes human right to
include many rights in interpersonal morality. For example, Griffin thinks that a child's
human right to education applies not just against governments but also against a child's
parents.

Griffin's thesis that all human rights are grounded in normative agency is put forward
not so much as a description but as a proposal, as the best way of giving human rights
unity, coherence, and limits. Unfortunately, accepting and following this proposal is
unlikely to yield effective barriers to proliferation or a sharp line between human rights
and other moral norms. The main reason is one that Griffin himself recognizes: the
“generative capacities” of normative agency are “quite great.” Providing adequate
protections of the three components of normative agency (autonomy, freedom, and
minimal well-being) will encounter a lot of threats to these values and hence will
require lots of rights. A better strategy here involves imposing demanding tests through
the justificatory process—and particularly near its end when questions of
burdensomeness and feasibility are being considered (Nickel 2007). Perhaps Griffin
could build these tests into his notion of practicalities.

Griffin thinks that he can explain the universality of human rights by recognizing that
normative agency is a threshold concept—once one is above the threshold one gets the
same rights as everyone else. One's degree of normative agency does not matter. There

15
are no “degrees of being a person” among competent adults. Treating normative agency
in this way, however, is a normative policy, not just a fact about concepts. An alternative
policy is possible, namely proportioning people's rights to their level of normative
agency. This is what we do with children; their rights grow as they develop greater
agency and responsibility. To exclude proportional rights, and to explain the egalitarian
dimensions of human rights such as their universality and their character as equal rights
to be enjoyed without discrimination, some additional ground pertaining to equality
seems to be needed.

2.3 Political Conceptions of Human Rights

A political conception of human rights offers an account of what human rights are—or
at least of what contemporary human rights are at the national and international levels.
Advocates of political conceptions of human rights are often agnostic about universal
moral rights while rejecting moral skepticism and thinking possible the provision of
sound normative justifications for the content, normativity, and roles of human rights.

John Rawls introduced the idea of a political conception of human rights in his book,
The Law of Peoples (Rawls 1999). The basic idea is that we can understand what human
rights are and what their justification requires by identifying the main roles they play in
some political sphere. In The Law of Peoples this sphere is international relations (and,
secondarily, national politics). Rawls was attempting a normative reconstruction of
international law and politics within today's international system, and this helps explain
Rawls's focus on how human rights function within this system. Human rights within
interpersonal relations are not part of this sphere.

Rawls says that human rights are a special class of urgent rights. He seems to accept the
definition of human rights given in Section 1 above. Besides saying that human rights
are rights that are high priority or “urgent,” Rawls also accepts that they are plural and
universal. But Rawls was working on a narrower project than Gewirth and Griffin. The
international human rights he was concerned with are also defined by their roles in
helping define in various ways the normative structure of the global system. They
provide content to other normative concepts such as legitimacy, sovereignty, permissible
intervention, and membership in good standing in the international community.

The justificatory process for human rights and the other principles of the law of peoples
is analogous to the one for principles of justice at the national level that Rawls described
in A Theory of Justice (Rawls 1971). Instead of asking about the terms of cooperation
that free and equal citizens would agree to under fair conditions, we ask about the terms
of cooperation that free and equal peoples or countries would agree to under fair
conditions. We imagine representatives of the world's countries meeting to choose the
normative principles that constitute the basic international structure. These
representatives are imagined to see the countries they represent as free (rightfully
independent) and equal (equally worthy of respect and fair treatment). These
representatives are also imagined to be choosing rationally in light of the fundamental
interests of their country, to be reasonable in seeking to find and respect fair terms of
cooperation, and impartial because they are behind a “veil of ignorance”—they lack
information about the country they represent such as its size, wealth, and power. Rawls

16
holds that under these conditions these representatives will unanimously choose
principles for the global order that include some basic human rights (for further
explanation of the global original position see the entries on John Rawls and original
position).

Rawls advocated a modest list of human rights, one that leaves out many fundamental
freedoms, rights of political participation, and equality rights. He did this for two
reasons. One is that he wanted a list that is not parochial to the liberal democracies and
that countries around the world would find attractive. The second reason is that he
viewed serious violations of human rights as triggers of the permissibility of various
kinds of intervention by other countries, and only the most important rights can play this
role.

Leaving out any protection for equality and democracy is a high price to pay for
assigning human rights the role of making international intervention permissible when
they are seriously violated. We can accommodate Rawls's underlying idea without
paying that price. To accept the idea that countries engaging in massive violations of the
most important human rights are not to be tolerated we do not need to follow Rawls in
equating international human rights with a heavily-pruned list. Instead we can work up a
view—which is needed for other purposes anyway—of which human rights are the
weightiest and then assign the intervention-permitting role to this subset (see Nickel
2007: 98–103).

Let's now turn to Charles Beitz's account of human rights in The Idea of Human Rights
(Beitz 2009). His view shares many similarities with Rawls's but is more fully
developed. Like Rawls, Beitz deals with human rights only as they have developed in
contemporary international human rights practice. Beitz suggests that we can develop an
understanding of human rights by attending to “the practical inferences that would be
drawn by competent participants in the practice from what they regard as valid claims of
human rights.” Observations of what competent participants say and do inform the
account of what human rights are. The focus is not on what human rights are at some
deep philosophical level; it is rather on how they work by guiding actions within a
recently emerged and still evolving discursive practice. The norms of the practice guide
the interpretation and application of human rights, the appropriateness of criticism in
terms of human rights, adjudication in human rights courts, and—perhaps most
importantly—responding to serious violations of human rights. Beitz says that human
rights are “matters of international concern” and that they are “potential triggers of
transnational protective and remedial action.”

Beitz does not agree with Rawls's view that these roles require an abbreviated list of
human rights. He accepts that the requirements of human rights are weaker than the
requirements of social justice at the national level, but denies that human rights are
minimal or highly modest in other respects.

Beitz rightly suggests that a person can accept and use the idea of human rights without
accepting any particular view about their foundations. It is less clear that he is right in
suggesting that good justifications of human rights should avoid as far as possible
controversial assumptions about religion, metaphysics, ideology, and intrinsic value (see

17
the entry public reason). Beitz emphasizes the practical good that human rights do, not
their reflection of some underlying moral reality. This makes human rights attractive to
people from around the world with their diverse religious and philosophical traditions.
The broad justification for human rights and their normativity that Beitz offers is that
they protect “urgent individual interests against predictable dangers (”standard threats“)
to which they are vulnerable under typical circumstances of life in a modern world order
composed of states.”

1. Los Derechos Humanos en un mundo multicultural

Human rights prescribe universal standards in areas such as security, law enforcement,
equality, political participation, and education. The peoples and countries of planet
Earth are, however, enormously varied in their practices, traditions, religions, and levels
of economic and political development. Putting these two propositions together may be
enough to generate the worry that universal human rights do not sufficiently
accommodate the diversity of Earth's peoples. A theoretical expression of this worry is
“relativism,” the idea that ethical, political, and legal standards for a particular country
or region are mostly shaped by the traditions, beliefs, and conditions of that country or
region (see the entry on moral relativism). The anthropologist William G. Sumner,
writing in 1906, asserted that “the mores can make anything right and prevent
condemnation of anything” (Sumner 1906, 521).

Relativists sometimes accuse human rights advocates of ethnocentrism, arrogance, and

cultural imperialism (Talbott 2005, 39–42). Ethnocentrism is the assumption, usually
unconscious, that “one’s own group is the center of everything” and that its beliefs,
practices, and norms provide the standards by which other groups are “scaled and rated”
(Sumner 1906, 12–13). This can lead to arrogance and intolerance in dealings with other
countries, ethical systems, and religions. Finally, cultural imperialism occurs when the
economically, technologically, and militarily strongest countries impose their beliefs,
values, and institutions on the rest of the world. Relativists often combine these charges
with a prescription, namely that tolerance of varied practices and traditions ought to be
instilled and practiced through measures that include extended learning about other
cultures.

The conflict between relativists and human rights advocates may be partially based on
differences in their underlying philosophical beliefs, particularly in metaethics.
Relativists are often subjectivists or noncognitivists and think of morality as socially
constructed and transmitted. In contrast, philosophically-inclined human rights
advocates are more likely to adhere to cognitivism, moral realism, and intuitionism.

During the drafting in 1947 of the Universal Declaration, the Executive Board of the
American Anthropological Association warned of the danger that the Declaration would
be “a statement of rights conceived only in terms of the values prevalent in Western
Europe and America.” Perhaps the main concern of the AAA Board in the period right
after World War II was to condemn the intolerant colonialist attitudes of the day and to

18
advocate cultural and political self-determination. But the Board also made the stronger
assertion that “standards and values are relative to the culture from which they derive”
and thus “what is held to be a human right in one society may be regarded as anti-social
by another people” (American Anthropological Association Statement on Human Rights
1947).

This is not, of course, the stance of most anthropologists today. Currently the American
Anthropological Association has a Committee on Human Rights whose objectives
include promoting and protecting human rights and developing an anthropological
perspective on human rights. While still emphasizing the importance of cultural
differences, anthropologists now often support cultural survival and the protection of
vulnerable cultures; non-discrimination, and the rights and land claims of indigenous
peoples.

The idea that relativism and exposure to other cultures promote tolerance may be
correct from a psychological perspective. People who are sensitive to differences in
beliefs, practices, and traditions, and who are suspicious of the grounds for extending
norms across borders, may be more inclined to be tolerant of other countries and
peoples than those who believe in an objective universal morality. Still, philosophers
have been generally critical of attempts to argue from relativism to a prescription of
tolerance (Talbott 2005: 42–44). If the culture and religion of one country has long
fostered intolerant attitudes and practices, and if its citizens and officials act intolerantly
towards people from other countries, they are simply following their own traditions and
cultural norms. They are just doing what relativists think people mostly do.
Accordingly, a relativist from a tolerant country will be hard-pressed to find a basis for
criticizing the citizens and officials of the intolerant country. To do so the relativist will
have to endorse a transcultural principle of tolerance and to advocate as an outsider
cultural change in the direction of greater tolerance. Because of this, relativists who are
deeply committed to tolerance may find themselves attracted to a qualified commitment
to human rights.

East Asia is the region of the world that participates least in the international human
rights system—even though many East Asian countries do participate. In the 1990s
Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and others argued that international human
rights as found in United Nations declarations and treaties were insensitive to distinctive
“Asian values” such as prizing families and community (in contrast to strong
individualism); putting social harmony over personal freedom; respect for political
leaders and institutions; and emphasizing responsibility, hard work, and thriftiness as
means of social progress (on the Asian Values debate see Bauer and Bell 1999; Bell
2000; Sen 1997; and Twining 2009). Proponents of the Asian values idea did not wish to
abolish all human rights; they rather wanted to deemphasize some families of human
rights, particularly the fundamental freedoms and rights of democratic participation (and
in some cases the rights of women). They also wanted Western governments and NGOs
to stop criticizing them for human rights violations in these areas.

At the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, countries including

Singapore, Malaysia, China, and Iran advocated accommodations within human rights
practice for cultural and economic differences. Western representatives tended to view

19
the position of these countries as excuses for repression and authoritarianism. The
Conference responded by approving the Vienna Declaration. It included in Article 5 the
assertion that countries should not pick and choose among human rights: “All human
rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international
community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same
footing, and with the same emphasis. While the significance of national and regional
particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne
in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural
systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Perhaps the debate about relativism and human rights has become obsolete. In recent
decades widespread acceptance of human rights has occurred in most parts of the world.
Three quarters of the world’s countries have ratified the major human rights treaties, and
many countries in Africa, the Americas, and Europe participate in regional human rights
regimes that have international courts (see 5.4 Regional Arrangements below). Further,
all of the world's countries now use similar political institutions (law, courts,
legislatures, executives, militaries, bureaucracies, police, prisons, taxation, and public
schools) and these institutions carry with them characteristic problems and abuses
(Donnelly 2003: 46, 92; Nickel 2007, 173–4). Finally, globalization has diminished the
differences among peoples. Today’s world is not the one that early anthropologists and
missionaries found. National and cultural boundaries are breached not just by
international trade but also by millions of travelers and migrants, electronic
communications, international law covering many areas, and the efforts of international
governmental and non-governmental organizations. International influences and
organizations are everywhere and countries borrow freely and regularly from each
other’s inventions and practices.

Worldwide polls on attitudes towards human rights are now available and they show
broad support for human rights and international efforts to promote them. A December
2011 report by the Council on Foreign Relations surveyed recent international opinion
polls on human rights that probe agreement and disagreement with propositions such as
“People have the right to express any opinion,” “People of all faiths can practice their
religion freely,” “Women should have the same rights as men,” “People of different
races [should be] treated equally,” and governments “should be responsible for ensuring
that [their] citizens can meet their basic need for food.” Big majorities of those polled in
countries such as Argentina, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iran, Kenya, Nigeria, China,
India, and Indonesia gave affirmative answers. Further, large majorities (on average
70%) in all the countries polled supported UN efforts to promote the human rights set
out in the Universal Declaration. Empirical research can now replace or supplement
theoretical speculations about how much disagreement on human rights exists
worldwide.

2. Conclusiones

20
The persistence of the notion
Although the heyday of natural rights proved short, the idea of rights nonetheless endured.
The abolition of slavery, the implementation of factory legislation, the rise of popular
education and trade unionism, the universal suffrage movement—these and other examples of
19th-century reformist impulses afford ample evidence that the idea was not to be
extinguished, even if its a priori derivation had become a matter of general skepticism. But it
was not until the rise and fall of Nazi Germany that the idea of human rights truly came into its
own. Many of the gruesome atrocities committed by the Nazi regime had been officially
authorized by Nazi laws and decrees, and this fact convinced many that law and morality
cannot be grounded in any purely idealist or utilitarian or other consequentialist doctrine.
Certain actions, according to this view, are absolutely wrong, no matter what the
circumstances; human beings are entitled to simple respect, at least.

Today the vast majority of legal scholars and philosophers—particularly in the liberal West—
agree that every human being has, at least in theory, some basic rights. Indeed, except for
some essentially isolated late 19th-century and early 20th-century demonstrations of
international humanitarian concern, the last half of the 20th century may fairly be said to mark
the birth of the international as well as the universal recognition of human rights. In the
charter establishing the United Nations, for example, all member states pledged themselves to
take joint and separate action for the achievement of “universal respect for, and observance of,
human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or
religion.” In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, representatives from many cultures
endorsed the rights therein set forth “as a common standard of achievement for all peoples
and all nations.” And in 1976 the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), each
approved by the UN General Assembly in 1966, entered into force and effect. Together with the
Universal Declaration and their additional protocols, these documents came ultimately to be
known as core elements of the “International Bill of Human Rights.”

Human rights in the early 21st century

Whatever the current attitudes and policies of governments, the reality of popular demands
for human rights, including both greater economic justice and greater political freedom, is
beyond debate. A deepening and widening concern for the promotion and protection of
human rights on all fronts, hastened by the ideal of self-determination in a postcolonial era, is
now unmistakably woven into the fabric of contemporary world affairs.

Substantially responsible for this progressive development has been the work of the UN, its
allied agencies, and such regional organizations as the Council of Europe, the OAS, and the AU.
Also contributing to this development, particularly since the 1970s and ’80s, have been six
other salient factors: (1) the emergence of nationalism and rising expectations in the
developing world following the post-World War II dismantling of colonial empires, (2) the
public advocacy of human rights as a key aspect of national foreign policies, made initially

21
legitimate by the example of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, (3) the emergence and spread of civil
society on a transnational basis, primarily in the form of activist nongovernmental human
rights organizations, (4) a worldwide profusion of teaching and research devoted to the study
of human rights in both formal and informal settings, (5) the proliferation of large UN
conferences in areas such as children’s rights, population, social development, women’s rights,
human settlements, and food production and distribution, and (6) a feminist intellectual and
political challenge regarding not only the rights of women worldwide but also what feminists
consider to be the paternalistic myths and mythic structures that purport to define humane
governance generally.

U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter speaking on human rights in his farewell speech to the country, January
14, 1981.Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library

To be sure, because the application of international human rights law depends for the most
part on the voluntary consent of nations, formidable obstacles attend the endeavours of
human rights policy makers, activists, and scholars. Human rights conventions continue to be
undermined by the failure of states to ratify them, by emasculating reservations and
derogations, by self-serving reporting systems that outnumber objective complaint procedures,
and by poor financing for the implementation of human rights prescriptions. In short, the
mechanisms for the enforcement of human rights are still in their infancy, a situation due in no
small measure to the post-Cold War dominance of neoliberalism in world affairs, which is
strongly resistant to state and market regulation of the economy. In this context, the vexing
question of corporate accountability for human rights abuses, and the dangers to human rights
values and capabilities posed by overbearing corporate power, also present complex
contemporary challenges for the future of human rights. Nevertheless, it is certain that, out of
necessity no less than out of realism, a palpable concern for the advancement of human rights
is here to stay.

Derechos Humanos
El término «derechos humanos» se menciona siete veces en la Carta fundacional de la ONU,
por lo que su promoción y protección son objetivos fundamentales y principios rectores de la
Organización. En 1948, la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos los situó en el
terreno del derecho internacional. Desde entonces, la Organización ha protegido
diligentemente los derechos humanos mediante instrumentos legales y actividades en el
terreno.La Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos (1948) fue el primer documento
legal de protección de estos derechos. Junto con el Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y
Políticos y el Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales, los tres
instrumentos forman la llamada Carta Internacional de los Derechos Humanos. Una serie de

22
tratados internacionales y otros instrumentos adoptados desde 1945 han aumentado
la legislación internacional de derechos humanos.

Foto ONU/Fardin Waezi

Los estudiantes de la Escuela Secundaria Butkhak en Kabul, Afganistán, animan al unísono en el
último día de la Semana de Acción Mundial, una campaña internacional que aboga por la
educación gratuita y de calidad para todos.

¿Cómo promueve y protege la ONU los derechos humanos?

Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos

La Oficina del Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos (ACNUDH) es el organismo
encargado directamente de su promoción y protección. Apoya a los departamentos de
derechos humanos que forman parte de las misiones de mantenimiento de la paz en varios
países, y cuenta con un gran número de centros y de oficinas regionales y nacionales. El Alto
Comisionado a menudo hace declaraciones acerca de la situación de estas garantías básicas en
el mundo y tiene autoridad para investigar situaciones irregulares y elaborar informes sobre
ellas.

Consejo de Derechos Humanos

El Consejo de Derechos Humanos, establecido en 2006, sustituyó a la Comisión de Derechos
Humanos, con 60 años de trabajo a sus espaldas, como el órgano intergubernamental clave
responsable de esta cuestión.

Órganos de tratados de derechos humanos

Los órganos de tratados de derechos humanos están constituidos por comités de expertos
independientes encargados de supervisar la aplicación de los principales tratados
internacionales sobre este asunto.

23
Procedimientos especiales
Los procedimientos especiales del Consejo son llevados a cabo por expertos independientes y
prominentes que trabajan de manera voluntaria, examinan, supervisan, informan
públicamente y asesoran desde una perspectiva temática y por países.

UNDG-HRM
El Mecanismo de incorporación de la perspectiva de derechos humanos del Grupo de las
Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (UNDG-HRM) promueve estas garantías básicas dentro del
sistema de desarrollo de la Organización.

Asesores Especiales sobre la Prevención del Genocidio y la Responsabilidad de

Proteger
El Asesor Especial para la Prevención del Genocidio actúa como catalizador para concienciar
acerca de las causas y las dinámicas del genocidio, para alertar a los actores relevantes cuando
exista riesgo de genocidio, así como para promover y llevar a cabo acciones apropiadas.
El Asesor Especial sobre la Responsabilidad de Proteger lidera el desarrollo conceptual, político,
institucional y operativo de la responsabilidad de proteger.

¿Qué instrumentos legales ayudan a la ONU en la protección de los

Derechos Humanos?

La Carta Internacional de los Derechos Humanos

La Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos(1948) fue el primer documento legal que
protegía los derechos humanos. Junto con el Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos
y el Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales, los tres instrumentos
forman la llamada Carta Internacional de los Derechos Humanos. Una serie de tratados
internacionales sobre derechos humanos y otros instrumentos adoptados desde 1945 han
aumentado la legislación internacional de derechos humanos.

Democracia
La democracia, basada en el Estado de derecho, es en última instancia un medio para lograr la
paz y la seguridad internacionales, el progreso y el desarrollo económico y social, y el respeto
de los derechos humanos; los tres pilares de la misión de las Naciones Unidas enunciados en la
Carta fundacional. En la Cumbre Mundial de 2005, todos los gobiernos del mundo reafirmaron
«que la democracia es un valor universal basado en la voluntad libremente expresada de los
pueblos de determinar sus propios sistemas políticos, económicos, sociales y culturales y su
plena participación en todos los aspectos de sus vidas», y destacaron «que la democracia, el
desarrollo y el respeto de todos los derechos humanos y las libertades fundamentales son
interdependientes y se refuerzan mutuamente». Los principios democráticos forman parte del
entramado normativo de la Organización. La Nota Orientativa sobre la Democracia emitida por
el Secretario General en 2009, en la que se enuncian las normas fundamentales y se establecen
los parámetros y las metas institucionales, ha resultado ser un instrumento útil para armonizar
la labor de la Organización en apoyo del desarrollo democrático.

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¿Qué otros organismos y oficinas de la ONU están encargados de
proteger los derechos humanos?

Consejo de Seguridad
El Consejo de Seguridad en ocasiones se enfrenta a graves violaciones de los derechos
humanos que se producen en las zonas en conflicto. La Carta fundacional lo dota de autoridad
para investigar y mediar, enviar una misión, asignar enviados especiales o solicitar al Secretario
General que utilice sus buenos oficios. También puede emitir directivas de alto el fuego y
desplegar observadores militares o fuerzas de mantenimiento de la paz. Si esto no funciona,
puede optar por imponer medidas coercitivas, como sanciones económicas, embargos de
armas, penalizaciones y restricciones, prohibiciones de viajar, ruptura de relaciones
diplomáticas, bloqueos o incluso acciones militares colectivas.

Tercera Comisión de la Asamblea General

La Tercera Comisión de la Asamblea General (para los asuntos sociales, humanitarios y
culturales) analiza una variedad de temas, que incluyen cuestiones de derechos humanos.
También trata asuntos relacionados con el avance de las mujeres, la protección de los niños,
cuestiones indígenas, el trato a los refugiados, la promoción de las libertades fundamentales a
través de la eliminación del racismo y la discriminación racial, y el derecho a la
autodeterminación. Además, se ocupa de importantes cuestiones de desarrollo social.

Varios organismos que tratan temas diversos

Diferentes organismos intergubernamentales y mecanismos interdepartamentales ubicados en
la sede de las Naciones Unidas en Nueva York, así como el Secretario General, se ocupan de
diversos temas relacionados con los derechos humanos. La Asamblea General, así como
el Consejo Económico y Social (ECOSOC) y sus órganos subsidiarios, toman decisiones en
materia política y hacen recomendaciones a los Estados Miembros, al sistema de las Naciones
Unidas y a otras partes implicadas. El Foro Permanente para las Cuestiones Indígenas (UNPFII),
es un organismo asesor del Consejo Económico y Social, con el mandato de examinar las
cuestiones indígenas relacionadas con el desarrollo económico y social, la cultura, la educación,
la salud, el medio ambiente y los derechos humanos. La Oficina del Alto Comisionado para los
Derechos Humanos interacciona con los órganos y mecanismos y les presta asesoramiento y
apoyo en la materia. También trabaja para integrar estos derechos en todas las áreas de
trabajo de la Organización, como el desarrollo, la paz y la seguridad, el mantenimiento de la
paz y los asuntos humanitarios. Los derechos humanos también se abordan en el contexto de
las actividades de apoyo a la consolidación de la paz posteriores a los conflictos y a la
construcción de la paz.

Secretario General
El Secretario General designa a los representantes especiales, que trabajan contra las
violaciones graves:

 Representante Especial del Secretario General para la cuestión de los niños en los
conflictos armados

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  Representante Especial del Secretario General sobre la violencia sexual en los conflictos

 Representante Especial del Secretario General sobre la violencia contra los niños

'Los derechos primero' (‘Human Rights Up Front’) es una iniciativa del Secretario General para
asegurar que el sistema tome medidas efectivas cuanto antes, según lo dispuesto por las
resoluciones de la Carta y de la ONU, para prevenir o responder a violaciones graves de los
derechos humanos a gran escala o del derecho internacional humanitario. Hace hincapié en
una responsabilidad compartida entre los diversos organismos a trabajar juntos para hacer
frente a tales violaciones. También busca lograr esto mediante la realización de cambios en tres
niveles: cultural, operativos y políticos. Estos cambios están transformando gradualmente la
forma en que la ONU entiende sus responsabilidades y las implementa. La iniciativa se ha
puesto en marcha progresivamente desde finales de 2013. A través de diversas presentaciones,
cartas y documentos de política, el Secretario General y el Secretario General Adjunto la han
presentado a la Asamblea General y al personal y los dirigentes del sistema de la ONU.

Operaciones de paz de las Naciones Unidas

Muchas operaciones de mantenimiento de la paz y misiones políticas y de consolidación de la
paz incluyen mandatos dirigidos a reforzar la protección y promoción de los derechos humanos
a través de acciones inmediatas y de largo plazo. Asimismo empoderan a la población para que
haga valer y reclame sus derechos y propician que el Estado y otras instituciones nacionales
cumplan sus obligaciones en lo relativo a los derechos humanos y al Estado de derecho.
También fomentan que los equipos que velan por los derechos humanos en el terreno trabajen
en estrecha colaboración y coordinación con otros civiles y cuerpos uniformados de las
operaciones de paz, muy especialmente en lo referente a la protección de los civiles. Asimismo
facilitan que se aborde la violencia sexual en el contexto de conflictos y las violaciones contra
los niños. Además, contribuyen al respeto de los derechos humanos y del imperio de la ley a
través de reformas legales, judiciales, del sector de seguridad y del sistema penitenciario.

Comisión de la Condición Jurídica y Social de la Mujer

La Comisión de la Condición Jurídica y Social de la Mujer es el principal órgano
intergubernamental a nivel mundial dedicado a la promoción de la igualdad y el avance de las
mujeres. ONU Mujeres, creada en 2010, actúa a modo de Secretaría de este órgano.

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