What We Mean When We Talk about ‘Human Rights’

Chapter 1 examines the different ways the idea of ‘human rights’ is understood in the philosophical literature: as a modern idiom for natural rights, establishing a moral code for the treatment of human beings; as defining the proper relationship between the state and the individual; as explaining the circumstances when secondary agents of justice can intervene in the internal affairs of a state; and as a discrete area of international law practice. Noting the lack of agreement on the meaning of the term ‘human rights’, the analysis here looks to develop a practice-based account, explaining the idea of human rights by reference to the practice, which, in turn, creates its own vision of the value of the human person in political societies.