Acknowledging the Complexity of the Human Rights Regime

Acknowledging the Complexity of the Human Rights Regime

Description

At first glance, vernacularization and quantification might seem to have little to do with one another; in fact, they both serve to emphasise the importance of a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the complexities of human rights. Simplicity and neatness are often sought by those who wish to ensure that human rights norms are understood and respected, that compliance can be measured and that countries’ performance can be judged and compared. But there are limits to simplification, whether it applies to the normative framework or to the evaluation of compliance. This volume explores the limits of two of the most prominent techniques for promoting what might be termed the ‘de-complexification’ of human rights. The first is an insistence that human rights norms represent a universally valid and accepted consensus and that they do, or should, have the same meaning everywhere in the world (the universalising technique). While the aspiration to achieve universality in certain respects is integral to the international regime, that term is often understood and invoked in ways that are both inappropriate and counter-productive. The second is the rapidly increasing use of quantification, and especially of composite indicators, to capture the essence of complex rights issues, to evaluate compliance and to rank the human rights performance of states or other actors (the quantification technique). Again, while indicators are potentially important to developing a deeper understanding of what is happening in practice, it is important to recognise their limitations and their potential to distort reality.

Source Publication

The Complexity of Human Rights: From Vernacularization to Quantification - Essays in Honour of Sally Engle Merry

Source Editors/Authors

Philip Alston

Publication Date

2024

Acknowledging the Complexity of the Human Rights Regime

Find @ NYU

Share

COinS