Social Structures
Author: Dr Laura Serra. Postdoctoral researcher reCreating Europe. All Institute. Department of Law, Maynooth University
Today, 10th of December, we are commemorating the day in which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Today is Human Rights Day!
Human Rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Yet, in the twenty-first century, billions of people around the world remain on the margins of society, facing multiple Human Rights violations. For this reason, it is essential not only to commemorate the 10th of December but also to remind us how much remains to be done.
Being in favour of human rights, against an oppressive society and with a firm belief in social justice, is no easy task. It takes commitment and daily efforts to be consistent with this position. This effort was made and is currently being made by many movements around the world. We cannot understand Human Rights without knowing those left-wing movements of the 1960s and 1970s which were responsible for changing the meaning and concept of oppression.
Social movements such as feminism, the disability movement, the anti-racist movement, among others, came to criticise society. They came to create alternative models of social organisations, trying to deconstruct and reconstruct a comprehensive understanding of social justice, pushing those margins into the centre by destabilising western/able/straight/white dominance that shaped public perception of marginalised communities, and by embracing diversity.
Several Human Rights Treaties are the result of social movements fights and reconstructions, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Human Rights are not an abstract concept. Black people, LGBTQ+ community, Disabled people and many more have the tools of epistemic resistance, which makes implicit the assumption of the utility of experience to produce knowledge. A brilliant example is the motto “nothing about us without us” which emerged from the disability movement.
Human Rights are the result of a just, honest, deconstructive, and empowering fight – a social claim. Human Rights allow us to pursue our plans in life and four values underpin them: dignity, liberty, solidarity, and equality. We will find these values in every Human Rights Treaty, and we must believe that through these rights and values, we can challenge every domain of power.
Dignity, initially, was not a legal concept, but rather a philosophical construction expressing the intrinsic value of the person. The absolute character of human dignity implies non-instrumentalisation and non-humiliation. As Kant acknowledged, we, as people are an end and not a means.
With the instrumentalisation of the body, individual autonomy is violated. With humiliation, the physical or mental integrity of the person is violated. We have human dignity and have the right to pursue our life’s plan with privacy, intimacy, and integrity.
Liberty, in its moral, political, and legal dimensions means the absence of such relations of domination and axis of subordination. This means that we should not conceive liberty only as a ‘negative’ conception or as a lack of interference from the State. Fredman acknowledges that from a Human Rights perspective, it is difficult to see why freedom should be seen only as an absence of deliberate State interference. As Chomsky recognises, liberty consists in the full development of all the material, intellectual and moral powers that are latent in each person. And many of us are familiar with the fact that the contemporary world has denied and keep denying fundamental freedoms to a vast number of people.
Solidarity means that we are assuming the interest of another person as our interest. Having solidarity with someone means accepting a strong idea of cooperation, finding the value of solidarity which holds communities together. The European Committee of Social Rights emphasised that one of the underlying purposes of the European Social Charter is to express solidarity and promote social inclusion.
Equality must be tangible and substantive to enjoy all human rights on an equal basis. Equality cannot be divorced from social reality – equality must be a reality in every area of our life beyond the commitment to an Act or policy. We must acknowledge that inequality is a structural concept rather than an outlying one. An act of discrimination is never isolated; it is due to systems that structure every-day oppression, such as ableism, sexism, racism, among many others.
These values behind Human Rights support the need to ensure that Human Rights are not just formal entitlements but must be enjoyed by all people.
With all these ideas, we can now reflect and consciously recognise our privileges and amplify marginalised voices. To mark this day and celebrate human rights – how can you, ALL blog readers, support these values and promote human rights?
If you are not already – you can engage in grass-roots movements of your community. Ireland has so many good examples of these! You can start following human rights defenders on social media. Volunteer for a human rights organisation in your community. Exercise empathy, be compassionate, be aware that marginalised groups are still experiencing human rights violations daily. And we must do our best as a society to work as a team!
Happy Human Rights Day!