Posted by silentpadna on 10/28/2014 12:47:00 PM (view original):
Taking a college course satisfying a General Ed Requirement.  As a 51 year-old WASP male, I need some opinions and I'm sure to find some that are different than my own.  I may or may not use your answers in a term paper I'm working on.  These are not questions to answer in the term paper - this is only to provide context to another topic.

1.  Are human rights Invented?  (course reading:  Inventing Human Rights, by Lynn Hunt)


2.  Are human rights the same as political rights?  Or is one a subset of the other (or are they independent)?


3.  If invented, who decides what human rights are?  (Corollary:  if discovered, who decides what human rights are?)


Whatever you want to add beyond the yes/no would be great.  Thanks.

1. Yes, clearly. And they can be taken away. If you're convicted of a certain crime you can lose your right to life.
2. No, political rights are separate from human rights. You have the right to life but you don't have the right to religion or speech or equal treatment under the law until the law grants you that right.
3. We decide as a society...and often change our minds.

1.  Are human rights Invented?  (course reading:  Inventing Human Rights, by Lynn Hunt)
Yes, of course. Man didn't start on Earth with any kind of rights, we meandered around killing **** to survive (including each other) then determined that "Whoa hey, you shouldn't do that."


2.  Are human rights the same as political rights?  Or is one a subset of the other (or are they independent)?
Eh, perhaps I don't quite grasp the question. I would think human rights are ingrained in political rights (or vice-versa?), but it isn't if you're looking worldwide. Our system of political rights differs greatly than say North Korea.


3.  If invented, who decides what human rights are?  (Corollary:  if discovered, who decides what human rights are?)
The Government. In America your rights can change based on societal change, such as interracial marriage, or gay marriage, but it takes Government (or judicial) action to change things. We don't use polling measures to change things, we elect people to the Government in the hopes that they change things.

But again, if you look at North Korea/China/Middle East etc, society doesn't have a say, because those Governments aren't changing.