Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / Despite the triumphalistic story of human rights progress, the twentieth century has witnessed the bloodiest human rights violation in of all of human history and the death toll of these atrocities has yet to decrease as we proceed into the new millennium. If it is evident that the egregious reality of violation of human rights is widespread and covers a large part of the globe, it is nonetheless also crucial to note that it has particularly taken on unbearable proportions on the African continent. Strangely enough, despite this extremely alarming situation, the world remains stonily undisturbed. One of the most flagrant and upsetting examples of this reality, which has distressed even the most skeptical, is the 1994 genocide of Rwandan Tutsis. In fact, nowhere else has the abstract and idealistic rhetoric of human rights, as well as the international community and the Church's commitment to human rights protection been as deeply demystified and radically questioned as in Rwanda. Hence, the present dissertation raises the question of how human rights discourse can articulate a vision of the subject of right that is not purely abstract and idealistic, but also takes into account the actual humanness of the subject of rights in his or her socio-historical condition. Furthermore, it asks how such a vision, one that is consistent with human rights exercise, can help reconstruct human rights ethics in a way that promotes greater respect for human rights for all, and how it can resolve the problem of apathy in the face of the human cry. In response to the above questions, the dissertation suggests an alternative to the inadequacy of the present human rights discourse that it articulates in two important moments. First, in a critical moment, it uses the tools of both political and liberation theologies in their respective critiques of modernity and colonial legacy of exploitative systems to formulate a threefold argument. This is an argument that challenges the epistemological assumptions, the ideological practical stance, and the perverse operation of human rights in the historical context of Africa in general, and that of Rwanda in particular. In its second moment, the argument relies on the dialogue between political and liberation theologies and, through a creative and internalized reading of their mutually constructive contributions, suggests new possible paths towards a new ethics of human rights. Such an approach not only reclaims the socio-historical conditions of the subject of rights, but it also places her suffering and its redemptive praxis at the heart of ethical concern and the struggle for human rights. Finally, it proposes an ethics that fosters a revolutionary anthropology of the suffering subject as a call to liberation and solidarity, as well as its consequential promotion of social structural transformation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_101576 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Rutagambwa, Elisee |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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