Department of Philosophy Public Lecture - Dr. Andreas Niederberger University of Duisburg-Essen-FR

Event date(s): February 27, 2024
Time(s): 04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Category: Both Campuses Fredericton
Location: Fredericton

Universality is considered an essential characteristic of human rights. But how exactly should we understand this characteristic? And which are its implications for the theory or philosophy of human rights: must it itself be universalistic and, if so, in what sense?

This lecture takes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) as its starting point and distinguishes between two dimensions of the universality of human rights: their validity everywhere and their applicability to all human beings. It first examines some philosophical approaches that argue that universal validity does not necessarily require a universalist theory to justify it. Against this background, it then considers the majority of views in the philosophical human rights debate that claim that an adequate understanding and explanation of the universal validity of human rights and, more generally, of the idea and function of human rights requires their justification by a universalist theory. However, the analysis of these arguments shows that their aim to justify the need for a universalist foundation of human rights is often based on additional assumptions about the role of rights, which in turn require justification. In conclusion, this lecture argues that the supposed opposition between universalism and relativism in the field of human rights, which has been at the center of political debates in recent decades, can be better discussed if the universality of human rights is not tied to their justification in a universalist theory.

Building: Toole Hall

Room Number: Rm. 3