Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World (Advancing Human Rights)

248 Pages·2011·0.82 MB·English

by  Grace Y. Kao

Grounding Human Rights
in a Pluralist World
Advancing Human Rights
Sumner B. Twiss, John Kelsay, Terry Coonan, Series Editors
Editorial Board
Nigel Biggar John Langan, SJ
Stanley Cohen David Little
Michael C. Davis Dan Maier-Katkin
Mark Ensalaco Juan E. Mendez
Gerrie ter Haar Ann Elizabeth Mayer
Rhoda E. Michael H. Posner
Howard-Hassmann Fernando Teson
Simeon Ilesanmi
Agenda Setting, the UN, and NGOs: Gender Violence and Reproductive Rights
JUTTA M. JOACHIM
Breaking Silence: The Case That Changed the Face of Human Rights
RICHARD ALAN WHITE
For All Peoples and All Nations: The Ecumenical Church and Human Rights
JOHN S. NURSER
Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food
GEORGE KENT
Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World
GRACE Y. KAO
New Rights Advocacy: Changing Strategies of Development and Human Rights NGOs
PAUL J. NELSON AND ELLEN DORSEY
Power and Principle: Human Rights Programming in International Organizations
JOEL E. OESTREICH
Protecting Human Rights: A Comparative Study
TODD LANDMAN
The Rights of God: Islam, Human Rights, and Comparative Ethics
IRENE OH
Grounding
Human Rights
in a Pluralist World
Grace Y. Kao
Georgetown University Press/Washington, D.C.
©2011 Georgetown University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this
book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kao, Grace (Grace Y.)
Grounding human rights in a pluralist world / Grace Kao.
p. cm.—(Advancing human rights)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-1-58901-733-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Human rights. 2. Cultural pluralism. I. Title.
JC571.K336 2010
323—dc22 2010036734
(cid:2)(cid:2)
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library
Materials.
15 14 13 12 11 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
First printing
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
One
Prolegomena to Any Philosophical Defense
of Human Rights 11
Cultural Relativism 11
Ethnocentrism 18
Two
The Maximalist Challenge to Human Rights
Justification 31
Maximalist Approaches in Human Rights Declarations
and Documents 32
Why Human Rights Need Religion: A Sampling of Four
Theoretical Accounts 35
A Preliminary Assessment of the Maximalist Challenge 49
Rising to the Maximalist Challenge 54
Three
An Enforcement-Centered Approach to Human Rights,
with Special Reference to John Rawls 57
A Primer on Rawls’s Conception of Global Justice 58
Human Rights in the Law of PeoplesCompared to International
Human Rights Law 61
Rawlsian Human Rights: An Assessment 68
Conclusion 75
v
vi
Contents
Four
Consensus-Based Approaches to Human Rights 77
Obtaining a Cross-Cultural Consensus on Human Rights 78
Option 1: Consensus-Producing New Universal Human
Rights Standards 81
Option 2: Consensus-Encouraging Plural Foundations
for Human Rights 87
Beyond Shared Norms: Returning to the Original Sources
of Inspiration 96
Five
The Capability Approach to Human Rights 101
What Is the Capability Approach? A Primer 102
Comparing the Capability Approach to the Human Rights Framework 108
Justifying Human Capabilities and Human Rights 112
Enhancing Human Rights through the Framework of Capabilities 118
Revisiting the Question of Justification 125
Six
Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World 131
Assessing and Retrieving Minimalist Strategies of Justification 134
Assessing and Retrieving Maximalist Approaches to Justification 146
Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World by Straddling the
Minimalist–Maximalist Divide 152
Conclusion 170
Notes 173
References 207
Index 225
Acknowledgments
Thanks are due to several persons and institutions that have been
vital to bringing this project to completion. While I was an under-
graduate at Stanford University, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Van Harvey, and
Timothy P. Jackson first pointed me toward graduate school to pur-
sue further work on the relationship between philosophical and
religious ethics—a concern that animates this book. The central
problem and basic frame of Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist
Worldwas conceived when I was a doctoral student at Harvard Uni-
versity, where I was again challenged and nurtured by many fine
teachers and advisors. I thank Francis Schussler Fiorenza, David Lit-
tle, Ronald F. Thiemann, David C. Lamberth, and Hilary Putnam
for their time and careful shepherding of me throughout my pro-
gram of study. Of the many fine colleagues I had while working as
an assistant professor of religious studies at Virginia Tech, Elizabeth
Struthers Malbon especially stands out for her judicious mentor-
ship and holistic investment in my well-being. A National Endow-
ment for the Humanities summer institute on human rights in
conflict under the direction of John R. Wallach and a University of
Notre Dame Erasmus Institute summer faculty seminar on justice
under the direction of Nicholas Wolterstorff also provided me with
lively conversation partners with whom to test out ideas when the
manuscript was still in its nascent form. And many other friends I
have made throughout my formal schooling, the institutions at
which I have worked, or professional organizations such as the
American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics
have provided me with a constant stream of support and encour-
agement. I regret that I cannot name them all here.
I am especially grateful to the Georgetown University Press staff
and their director, Richard Brown, and the Advancing Human Rights
series editors, especially Sumner B. Twiss, for all of their assistance
vii
viii
Acknowledgments
and patience, particularly as the book went through several periods
of hibernation.
Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist Worldis dedicated to six peo-
ple: to my parents, Luke and Catherine Kao, for literally crossing an
ocean to provide a better life for my brother and me, and for all that
they continue to do to that end. To my older brother, John Kao, for
sharing all of the important milestones of life together. To my hus-
band, Nathaniel Walker, for his loving-kindness and willingness
to endure the life of a faculty spouse alongside of his own profes-
sional ambitions. And to my two sons—Preston Jia-Ying and Keenan
Chuan-Sheng—to whom I gave birth during this book’s long gesta-
tion and whose zest for life continues to enrich my own.
Introduction
On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations
adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) with-
out a single dissenting vote. The document was novel in declaring
that every human being, without “distinction of any kind,” possesses
a set of morally authoritative rights and fundamental freedoms that
ought to be socially guaranteed. Along with the 1946 Nuremberg
Principles and the 1948 Genocide Convention, the UDHR was rad-
ical in helping to construct a new geopolitical framework to hold
states more accountable for the manner in which they treated their
own citizens, foreign nationals, and members of other states.1
Today, human rights have arguably become the most important
cross-cultural moral concept and evaluative tool to measure the
performance and even legitimacy of domestic regimes. Most UN
member-states have ratified the two international covenants that
subsequently gave the UDHR legal form: the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its optional protocols and
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR). Other international human rights conventions or treaties
cover topic-specific concerns about torture and punishment, racial
discrimination, children, women, migrant workers, persons with dis-
abilities, and enforced disappearances. Consequently, states that are
“named and shamed” for their persistent human rights violations
could suffer adverse effects either in their diplomatic ties with oth-
ers or in their petitions for economic assistance from international
financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund. A people’s prospects for statehood could even hinge
upon their willingness or ability to honor human rights. Even non-
state actors such as multinational corporations increasingly face pres-
sures to comply with international human rights standards, such
as when labor activists and human rights watchdog groups inspire
1