The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History PDF
Preview The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History
The Last Utopia Human Rights in History Samuel Moyn TheBelknapPressofHarvardUniversityPress Cambridge,Massachusetts,andLondon,England2010 Copyright©2010bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Moyn,Samuel. Thelastutopia:humanrightsinhistory/SamuelMoyn. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-674-04872-0(alk.paper) 1.Humanrights—History. I.Title. JC571.M882010 323.09—dc22 2010012998 Contents Prologue 1 1 HumanitybeforeHumanRights 11 2 DeathfromBirth 44 3 WhyAnticolonialismWasn’taHumanRightsMovement 84 4 ThePurityofThisStruggle 120 5 InternationalLawandHumanRights 176 Epilogue:TheBurdenofMorality 212 Appendixes 231 Notes 241 BibliographicalEssay 311 Acknowledgments 323 Index 327 The Last Utopia Prologue When people hear the phrase “human rights,” they thinkofthehighestmoralpreceptsandpoliticalideals.Andtheyare righttodoso.Theyhaveinmindafamiliarsetof indispensablelib- eral freedoms, and sometimes more expansive principles of social protection.Buttheyalsomeansomethingmore.Thephraseimplies anagendaforimprovingtheworld,andbringingaboutanewonein which the dignity of each individual will enjoy secure international protection. It is a recognizably utopian program: for the political standards it champions and the emotional passion it inspires, this program draws on the image of a place that has not yet been called into being.It promises to penetrate the impregnability of state bor- ders,slowlyreplacingthemwiththeauthorityofinternationallaw.It prides itself on offering victims the world over the possibility of a betterlife.Itpledgestodosobyworkinginalliancewithstateswhen possible,butnamingandshamingthemwhentheyviolatethemost basic norms. Human rights in this sense have come to define the mostelevatedaspirationsofbothsocialmovementsandpoliticalen- tities—stateandinterstate.Theyevokehopeandprovokeaction. Itisstrikingtoregisterhowrecentlythisprogrambecamewide- spread.Over the course of the 1970s,the moral world of Westerners shifted,openingaspaceforthesortof utopianismthatcoalescedin aninternationalhumanrightsmovementthathadneverexistedbe- fore.TheeternalrightsofmanwereproclaimedintheeraofEnlight- enment,buttheyweresoprofoundlydifferentintheirpracticalout- comes—up to and including bloody revolution—as to constitute
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