Taking the politics out of human rights in conflict resolution : Northern Ireland and beyond

Abstract

Although supporters of human rights are sometimes reluctant to admit it, the very concept of human rights is a contested one. People reasonably differ as to what qualifies as a human right and as to why that is the case. Consensus on these issues is reached within different societies, or at the international level, only through processes of political deliberation and negotiation. In recent years all sorts of claims have been wrapped up in human rights language in an attempt to make them more acceptable to voters and to candidates who seek those votes when standing for political office. Within large-scale conflict situations, such as have occurred in Northern Ireland, South Africa, the Balkans and Turkey, it is particularly tempting for different political factions to exploit human rights language in order to boost their own political claims. The challenge for human rights academics and theorists is to try to prevent the concept of human rights from being unduly distorted as a result of inappropriate politicisation of the traditional vocabulary used in this context.