The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 tells us that ‘the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’. But on what grounds? What counts as ‘dignity’ and what makes it ‘inherent’ to human beings? What counts as equality and what makes human rights the ‘foundation’ of freedom, justice and peace? Many governments throughout history have promised various goods, but do human goods mean the same thing as human rights? If not, then what turns goods into rights? Given the historically recent concept of human rights must we conclude that societies lacking the concept necessarily lack freedom, justice and peace
15 credits