Abstract: Economic inequality is increasingly recognized as one of the main problems of our time. But what human rights have to say about it? Are human rights effective tools for tackling inequality, as human rights practitioners have argued, or are they powerless and inadequate tools to challenge inequality in the age of neoliberalism, as stated recently by Yale’s professor Samuel Moyn? This article examines the complex relations between economic inequality and human rights, especially economic and social rights (ESR), by exploring the arguments behind these two opposite views. We propose an intermediate position: while human rights and discussions about inequality predominantly take place in autonomous fields, it is not only possible but crucial to overcome some of the pitfalls of human rights law in relation to inequality in order to use it as an equalizing instrument. Extreme inequality poses not only strong empirical obstacles to the enjoyment of human rights but also undermines core tenets of human rights law, such as the principle of equality of opportunity.These links allow us to bridge the gap between the two fields and to speak of inequality as a human rights issue. We explore five paths to reinforce the equalizing potential of human rights law: 1) moving towards ‘empirical based normative standards,’ 2) advancing interpretations of human rights law more sensitive to economic inequality, 3) enhancing the equalizing potential of human rights accountability mechanisms; 4) incorporating human rights concerns across different regimes of internationaleconomic law, and 5) providing strategies and arguments for supporting redistributive policies between and within countries.
Current Issue
Our latest issue is out! Featuring a dossier on cultural renditions of the Guantánamo Bay Detention Center twenty years after it opened, including two essays from former detainees, our Winter 2022 issue also includes an essay on a resilience approach to human rights in contemporary Syria and Lebanon, and two essays on the International Committee of the Red Cross: one considers the organization's attempts to be neutral in early 1950s Korea, and the other presents the ICRC's managerial engagement with armed violence in Rio de Janeiro.
View entire issue > Save Save SaveRecent Blog Posts
International Law: A Novel, by G. (reviewed by a protagonist)
This essay is part of a symposium on Gerry Simpson’s The Sentimental Life of International Law. All contributions to the symposium can be found here. [I]rony [is employed] as a defense, . . . especially against the expression of intense affect . . . – M.H. Stein (1985) G.’s aspiration in his splendid new book[1] appears to be to rewrite international law as a vast novel, much as (another) G. sought to rewrite world history as a vast novel two centuries ago, in his Continue reading →
Barbarian International Law
This essay is part of a symposium on Gerry Simpson’s The Sentimental Life of International Law. All contributions to the symposium can be found here. Gerry Simpson has written what he is pleased to describe—tongue firmly placed in cheek—in the alternative as “the most useless book in the history of international law,” presumably saving any timid would-be-readers the trouble of checking for themselves. What the intrepid rest of us do get instead are six chapters showcasing in typical Simpsonian fashion what is possible in writing Continue reading →
Exciting PhD Scholarship available on torture prevention and community based collaborations. Working with myself, @andymjefferson and @DIGNITY_INT #tortureprevention #humanrights #phdscholarship
https://www.sgsss.ac.uk/studentship/torture-human-rights-groups-and-community-based-collaborations/
Excited to share that my article, Barring Judicial Review, will be published in @VandLRev! Many thanks to everyone who provided comments on earlier drafts. More comments are welcome! https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4368442
Our new issue of @HumanityJ is out!
Among other articles, @MohamedouOuld reflects in a hauntingly beautiful piece on how fifteen years of indefinite detention, torture, and abuse in the war on terror contributed to his development as a writer.
http://humanityjournal.org/current-issue/
21 years and counting... Special dossier in Humanity on Cultural Renditions of Guantanamo and the War on Terror: http://humanityjournal.org
@HumanityJ @BingHumanRts @MansoorAdayfi @MohamedouOuld @knadimintea
#BingHumanRights #Guantanamo #HumanRights