Essay Example on 21st Century: Human Rights Legitimacy Crisis?

In the first few years of the 21st century, human rights have turned into legitimacy and actuality crises. These crises have not been understood as a violation of human rights since they have been well hidden from view. The plight of legitimacy has left most theorists worried since it is so broad that even advocates of humans question whether Human rights will survive. For human rights to be active and legitimate, they must remain subversive. Since the American Declaration of Independence, power has been grasped as valid as long as it serves the interests of citizens. The people have a right to overthrow and challenge illegitimate power when they see it. If the human rights praxis wants to be able to renew the challenges to authority, then understanding of democracy is in needed urgently (Stammers, 2009). There are ways in which human rights can be oriented to challenge power more effectively.

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The terrible events of the system in the 20th century are linked to the events in the previous centuries. These events are inclusive of; slavery, genocide, and the gross economic exploitation that was established by the European powers and their American colonists, Africa, and Asia. The entire history of human civilization is marked by repeated barbarisms. If the human rights movement loses a capacity to challenge power effectively, then the 20th century is in danger of a continuation of this pattern. Many violations of human rights have occurred due to consequences of an extended political power outside the nation or a community. These have been grasped as imperialism, colonialism, and empire whose instances have been located in the ancient civilizations of Asia, America and the Middle East (Stammers, 2009). The present-day projection of political power by the United States has generated a massive range of abuses of human rights. The current and most possible future of global dominance in the United States and their peculiar understanding of human rights, and their attempt to write the international human rights law as they see fits is an indication of an ill future of human rights. It shows arrogance and hallmarks of desire for power through the ages. Combined in these histories are the economic exploitation of people, ethnicity, and discrimination based on sex and gender, and most people wanting to be in control of knowledge and information.

The focus on human rights as a law results in these forms of discrimination being understood as nothing more than 'legal instrumentalism.' Human rights should be about projecting on building the culture of human rights across all social relations. Theories of human rights and the laws of human rights are essential dimensions of the subject matter, but the assumptions that total human rights are disastrous. Through an analysis of different actors and issues about human rights, these points have been discussed reflecting how they might impact. Some of the important actors of human rights are human rights scholars (Stammers, 2009). UN convention of human rights has argued that, since the last middle of the nineteenth century, there have been active children rights movements. However, these movements have been dominated by adults and not children. Generally, the history of social movements has assumed that the most significant way to overcome a particular form of power is through substituting that form of control with another. Due to these, the democratization of institutions cannot be limited to the democratization of political institutions and should involve procedures which will constrain and limit power in social relations while at the same time, acknowledging that these institutions are needed for social power to be generated. The history of social movements has been lost in the hall of mirrors. The secret of fire will become more evident if the analytic association between social movements and human rights is well recognized.

Express your opinions about whether the article was a clear, thorough and useful explanation of the subject and give your reasons for your views. What questions do you have?

The article is clear, thorough and useful to the subject since it; it provides an overview of the main issues about human rights and challenges to power. The article provides a summary of how human rights are affected by power and those in power and argues on how these challenges can be renewed. It provides a historical review of how human rights have evolved in the 21st century to crises of legitimacy and crises of actuality and gives detailed information on failures of traditional human rights praxis and the limits of academic work on human rights. The article provides a summary of how these challenges are framed by policymakers indicating how these policymakers can provide complementary insights when it comes to human rights. It argues that the problem of the use of, and abuse of human rights by powerful states hidden in the centrism of the states international system and a close link between human rights and national states. The article integrates different ideas and sources from different scholars to support the main issue, giving equal weight to each. It argues that theory and law are the stuff of human rights. Some of the questions I have pertaining these issues are; are acts committed against defenders a violation of the national and international laws? Do the legal and institutional protections of human rights exist at all? What are the most current problems in the protection of human rights?

References

Stammers, N. (2009). Human rights and social movements. Pluto Press.