Vol. XXXVIII / 1 - Studia Moralia

THE USE OF HUMAN RIGHTS DISCOURSE 109
In the light of these comments it will be clear that the
cultural milieu in which current discussions of human rights
issues take place is by no means a neutral environment but is
itself, in considerable measure, the product of historical
processes in which human rights discourse has played a
significant role. The task in hand is to study more closely some
of the main issues which arise when this discourse is used as a
category of ethical discourse in such a cultural context.
A pragmatic perspective
Human rights discourse is often used in situations of
distress, oppression and conflict, sometimes of an extremely
urgent and critical nature. Appeals for action in such
circumstances are often pragmatic in nature, calling for an
immediate response of a humanitarian, juridical, political or
even military kind. Human rights discourse has shown itself to
be charged with a particular political valency in a whole range
of struggles and battles: the enforced abolition of apartheid in
South Africa, the collapse of the Soviet system, the various
Balkan catastrophes and Pinochet’s arrest in Britain are among
the many cases in point. The precise role that human rights
discourse has played in inspiring, supporting and effecting the
political processes involved in such cases is well beyond the
scope of this article, but there is no doubt that it has played its
part. Both in situations of this kind, as well as in less dramatic
circumstances, the pragmatic question arises as to how one
should respond to an increasingly wide range of human rights
claims. Let us consider, simply by way of illustrating the
problem, the following list of claims:
“It is a human right not be tortured”
“It is a human right to end one’s own life if the pain caused by
terminal illness becomes intolerable”
“It is a human right to have the freedom to express one’s
political opinion without being driven over by a tank”
“It is a human right of homosexual couples to adopt children”
“It is a human right of the embryo not to be aborted”
“It is a human right to have sufficient food to sustain one’s life”