Use and Abuse of Human Rights

• Published in: Boundary 2 2005-04, Vol.32 (1), p.131-189
• Main Author: Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cultural Relativism; Cultural Universals; Cultural Values; Culture; Current Affairs; Education; General Interest; Human Rights; Literary Criticism; Literary Theory; Literature and Literary Studies; Political science; Political Socialization; Social Responsibility; Socialization Agents
• ISSN: 0190-3659; 1527-2141
• DOI: 10.1215/01903659-32-1-131

A revised version of a paper originally presented at the Oxford chapter of Amnesty International on 2 February 2001 addresses the asymmetrical nature of human rights & human wrongs. Distinctions between responsibility-based & rights-based cultures are described. Other issues discussed include the disingenuousness of referring to Human Rights as "Eurocentric"; education in the Humanities as an "uncoercive rearrangement of desires"; the nature of the "human rights culture" that operates under constant Northern-ideological pressure; the long European debate surrounding natural/civil rights; & the pedagogy of the subaltern (those removed from lines of social mobility). It is argued that the problem with education in the US is that "it teaches (corporatist) benevolence while trivializing the teaching of the Humanities," resulting in cultural relativism as cultural absolutism. The need to bring back the lost cultural imperative to responsibility is emphasized. The link between Human Rights & the economic sphere is examined to point out the loss of the cultural habit of assuming the agency of responsibility in radical alterity in the training of children. 2 Figures. J. Lindroth