Human rights and personal responsibility

JULIO MONTERO

CABA

Simposio; II Simposio Internacional del Grupo de Filosofía Política; 2015

Centro de Investigaciones Filosóficas (CIF), Universidad Di Tella

According to the “orthodox” philosophical conception of human rights, individuals have a moral duty to promote the universal realization of human rights. However, advocates of this account develop the content of this duty in extremely vague terms. What does it mean that we must promote human rights satisfaction? Does it mean that we must devote a considerable amount of our time and resources to this task? Does it mean, instead, that we must make occasional donations to charities working to advance human rights realization? In this essay I argue that this duty can only be constructed as an imperfect one. This means that it confers us agent-relative discretion to decide when, how, and to what extent advance the human rights of others. It also means that it is neither correlative with rights nor enforceable. As I explain, the main reason for this is that any attempt to construct this duty as a perfect one would infringe the dignity of the potential duty-bearers and thereby undermine the very values that human rights practice aspires to serve. Finally, I will conclude by providing some guidelines for those who wish to comply with their imperfect duties to improve the situation of those whose human rights are in peril.