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Meditating on rights and responsibility: remarks on ‘the limits and burdens of rights’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 December 2020

Kathryn Sikkink
Kathryn Sikkink*
Affiliation:
Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: Kathryn_Sikkink@hks.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Kratochwil's critique of rights as a dominant moral theory that cannot avoid ‘hegemonic’ politics appears to be too crude. This article suggests that more theoretical and practical attention to the responsibilities necessary to implement rights could address some of Kratochwil's concerns. The language of political and ethical responsibilities is often missing from the practical action discourse of human rights. The article emphasizes the multitude of potential ‘agents of justice’ and how they can discharge forward-looking responsibilities in open and discretionary ways.

Keywords

Agents of justicehuman rightsresponsibilities
Type
Symposium: In the Midst of Theory and Practice: Edited by Hannes Peltonen and Knut Traisbach
Information
International Theory , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , November 2021 , pp. 574 - 580
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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