Begin a New Journey into the Changing Ethos of Human Rights
For our next Edited Volume Read Along Series, I will cover “The Changing Ethos of Human Rights,” edited by Hoda Mahmoudi, Alison Brysk, and Kate Seaman. This volume explores how the discussion surrounding human rights has changed in recent years and the resulting ethical, moral, and intellectual shifts. It also particularly highlights Ethics-of-Care theories and the idea that human life has inherent value and dignity.
The first entry is written by Dr. Michael Penn. In “Values and Human Rights: Implications of an Emerging Discourse on Virtue Ethics,” he explores how virtue ethics uniquely highlight the moral self as opposed to moral laws. He discusses how virtue ethics has started to be reflected and used in human rights research and the implications of this trend.
The volume continues with “Dignity and Treating Others Merely as Means,” written by Dr. Samuel Kerstein. He examines Kant’s notion of human dignity, the opposite of treating others as just a means to an end. Though Kant remains contested, he shows how these ideas can be applied to modern debates surrounding complex issues like bioethics and physician-assisted suicide.
The third entry, written by Dr. Alison Brysk, is titled “Making Rights Rhetoric Work: Constructing Care in a Post-Liberal World.” In her chapter, she discusses the different forms of rhetoric that have surrounded global and human rights in the past. She also argues that given current trends and changes, we should expand a feminist and ethics-of-care approach in our conversations.
Next, Dr. Parvati Raghuram argues for examining intersectionality more closely in the realm of care ethics. Her chapter titled “Race and Feminist Care Ethics: Intersectionality as Method” discusses how racialized differences affect care practices and, therefore, how we conceive of care ethics.
The fifth chapter is “Difficult Care: Examining Women’s Efforts in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” written by Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi. In it, she Describes the activities of women in modern-day Iran. She seeks a framework to understand how women’s caring practices undergird political, cultural, and artistic creation. This chapter views ethics of care through a human lens and is particularly relevant given the protests by women, which are ongoing in Iran.
The following entry by Dr. Kate Seaman is called “Empathy, Caring, and the Defense of Human Rights in a Digital World.” She discusses how new and developing technologies can be used to raise awareness, secure information, and organize defenders of human rights. Yet they can also be used to allow individuals to threaten state interests. She highlights how technology shapes and alters the web of human rights relationships.
The seventh and final chapter is “Cultural Heritage, Cultural Rights and Care Ethics,” by Dr. Matthew Weinert. He talks about the ways that cultural rights are undervalued. The chapter describes the 2009 edict establishing the position of Special Rapporteur. He also discusses how new technology can help preserve cultural heritage while also disengaging culture from geographical context. He sees new opportunities for intercultural communication and understanding.
Human rights and the questions surrounding them are central to what it means to be human. This text seeks to examine how differing views of humanity impact our discussions and conceptions of rights. It also strives to uncover how moral codes are embodied in social and political codes. It presents ethics of care as an overarching theme with the goal of seeing how we can harness the potential it offers to preserve and expand human rights around the world.
About the Author
Stella Hudson is a Graduate Assistant with the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2021 with a B.A. in English. She is attending the University of Maryland and pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Science.