Author Archives: Benjamin P. Davis

About Benjamin P. Davis

Benjamin P. Davis is Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethics at the University of Toronto, Centre for Ethics. His current research brings together human rights and decolonial thinking. It includes, in addition to this article in Humanity, the articles "What Could Human Rights Do? A Decolonial Inquiry" (Transmodernity, 2020) and "Human Rights and Caribbean Philosophy: Implications for Teaching" (Journal of Human Rights Practice, forthcoming). Outside of this project on human rights, his research considers the concepts of Édouard Glissant and Simone Weil with a view toward political belonging in the present.

The Promises of Standing Rock: Three Approaches to Human Rights

September 4, 2021 by
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Abstract: Any appeal to a right raises the question of a corresponding duty. If one bears a right, then who bears the duty to respect, protect, and enforce that right? In this essay, I contend that human rights claims need not be oriented to or reliant on the state. I start from and conclude with lessons from the 2016 protests at Standing Rock. Standing Rock, I argue, exemplifies critical theory that organizes communities through the language of human rights. Continue reading →