Human rights as social constructions

Patricia Werhane

Thomas Wren

pp. 167-181

in: David Bevan, Regina W. Wolfe (eds), Systems thinking and moral imagination, Berlin, Springer, 2019

Abstract

In this article, written with Tom Wren, the authors set out to reconcile the traditional, normative foundational idea of human rights with a social constructivist point of view. Here, they argue that one can make perfect sense of human rights as social constructions without committing to the universalist position that human rights are a basic set of claims for all human beings everywhere. Rather one should think of human rights as candidates or nominees for universal principles – candidates that are continually vetted and revised just as persons revise mindsets and social constructions. Whether or not this preserves a strong notion of human rights is still the subject of contention and controversy.Original publication: Werhane, Patricia H. and Wren, Thomas E. "Human Rights as Social Constructions." Listening: Journal of Communication Ethics, Religion, and Culture (2014) 49: 121–36. ©2014 Reprinted with permission.