This report explores and questions the history of human rights rhetoric through the 18th century anti-slave trade poem of Hannah More, Slavery, a poem. Hannah More used the term ‘human rights’ more than 150 years before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Nevertheless, when historians and political scientists track the history of human rights, it is frequently presented as “from Locke through Paine” as part of a narrative of the “coming of age” of democracy in a longer quest for rights stemming from 18th century revolutions and radicalism. This report looks instead at the episodic nature of human rights rhetoric through 18th century ideas of the human. As argued here, More’s use of the term ‘human rights’ indicates an attempt to reconcile the tension between Enlightenment and Christian discourses to promote the anti-slave trade cause. / text

A universal human dignity, conceived as an inherent and inalienable value or worth in all human beings, which ought to be recognised, respected and protected by others, has become one of the most prominent and widely promoted interpretations of human dignity, especially in international human rights law. Yet, it is also one of the most difficult interpretations of human dignity to justify and ground. The fundamental problem rests on how one can justify bestowing an equal high worth to all human lives, whilst also attributing to all human life a worth that is superior to all non-human animal life. To avoid the speciesist charge it seems necessary to provide further reasons, over and above species membership, for why all humans have a unique worth and dignity. However, intrinsic capacities, such as autonomy, intelligence or language use, are too demanding for many humans (including foetuses or the severely cognitively disabled) to meet the required minimum standard, whilst also being obtainable by some non-human animals, regardless of where the level is set. This thesis offers a solution to this problem by turning instead to the significance of the relational ties between individuals or groups that transcend individual capacities and abilities, and consequently does not require that all individuals in the group need meet the minimum required capacity for full moral status. Rather, it is argued that a universal human dignity could be grounded in our social nature, the interconnectedness and interdependence of human life and the morally considerable relationships that can and do arise from it, especially in regards to our shared vulnerability and dependence, and our ability to engage in caring relationships. Care represents the antithesis to the dehumanizing effects of humiliation, and other degrading and dehumanizing acts, and as a relational concept, human dignity is often best realised through our caring relationships. The way that individuals and groups treat each other has a fundamental role in determining both an individual’s sense of self-worth and well-being, as well as their perceived public value and worth. Thus, whilst species membership is not in itself morally fundamental or basic, it often shapes the nature of our social and moral relations. These relational ties between humans, it is argued, distinguish us most clearly from other non-human animals and accord human relationships a special moral significance or dignity.

Le système arabe des droits de l’homme repose, pour l’essentiel, sur un traité international, la Charte arabe des droits de l’homme. Il est institué, en vertu de ladite Charte, un Comité arabe des droits de l’homme qui surveille et contrôle l’application des obligations incombant aux États parties à la Charte. Malgré sa mise en place tardive (2004) par rapport à d’autres systèmes régionaux de protection des droits de l’homme, il s’est avéré que cette Charte est unique en son genre. Elle combine des droits divins et naturels et verrouille, de par le contenu des dispositions liminaires et finales de la Charte, sa propre évolution. Elle présente des traits qui, dans l’ordre international, n’appartiennent qu’à elle. En s’écartant du modèle des Pactes onusiens, la Charte ne consacre non seulement des droits en régression par rapport à ceux garantis dans lesdits Pactes, mais aussi des droits rédigés en termes ambigus dont la transposition dans l’ordre interne des États parties élargira encore le creuset jusqu’à rendre incertain l’efficacité de cette Charte.En somme, la Charte en elle-même, ainsi que son application, sont loin, pour le moment, de renforcer les normes universelles des droits de l’homme ou même de les maintenir à cause du caractère global du niveau de protection, qui est inférieur à celui des standards internationaux. Il est vrai que l’affirmation par la Ligue des États arabes des droits et libertés est une chose et que la garantie du respect de ces droits en est une autre. Or, en matière de droits de l’homme, la justiciabilité de la règle conditionne l’efficacité de la garantie et de sa sanction. L’analyse du système arabe de protection des droits de l’homme a conduit à constater qu’il ne satisfait pas à cette condition, contrairement à d’autres systèmes régionaux. D’où l’urgence de reformuler le texte de la Charte arabe dans une optique de mise en conformité aux normes internationales des droits de l’homme. / The Arab human rights system relies essentially upon an international convention, the Arab Charter on human rights. An Arab human rights Committee in set up under the Charter that supervises and monitors the implementation of Charter obligations by States parties. Despite its late establishment (2004) compared to other regional systems of human rights protection, the Charter has proved to be unique in its kind. The Charter combines divine and natural rights and, by means of its general and final provisions, succeeds in curtailing its own future development. Some features of the Charter are original compared to what one finds in other international instruments. As for that, the Charter deviates from United Nations conventional standards, as it enshrines several human rights in somewhat regressive or ambiguous forms. Transposition of these rights into domestic law is expected to further widen discrepancies with United Nations human rights standards and render as a whole the efficiency of the Charter quite uncertain.In other words, the Charter itself and its implementation are far, for the time being, from strengthening universal human rights, or even maintaining for them a level of global protection near to that prevailing in accepted international standards. It is notable to address that it is one thing for the Arab League to affirm human rights, and quite another to guarantee those rights. Yet, in the human rights field, the efficiency and coerciveness of the norm is conditioned to the possibility of some kind of effective judicial review. The assessment of the Arab human rights system prompts to assert that this requirement is only poorly met, in contrast with other human rights regional systems. Hence, the urgency to revise the text of the Arab Charter on human rights in a perspective aiming at guaranteeing its progressive compliance with international human rights standards.

Violence against women continues to be an issue that severely impacts women worldwide. Since the global spread of the #MeToo movement in 2017, debates regarding this issue significantly increased. Yet the precise ways in which women are impacted by violence, heavily influenced by their unique and diverse aspects of identity, are often disregarded. By focusing on two of these aspects of identity, namely gender and nationality, and comparing the circumstances of sexual violence against women in Germany, Nigeria, and South Korea, this thesis aims to showcase the diverse experiences of ‘being a woman’ and what this implies regarding the issue of sexual violence against women. With an additional analysis of four important international conventions aimed at ameliorating women’s lives (UDHR, CEDAW, DEVAW, and BPfA) regarding their acknowledgement of this diversity and guided by three theories, namely Multi-Ethnic Feminism, Feminist Postcolonialism, and Intersectionality, this thesis highlights the necessity of including everyone and their unique experiences with all kinds of discrimination to adequately tackle an issue such as sexual violence against women.