Abstract
In this article I examine Onora O’Neill’s philosophical critique of human rights in the context of her appointment to the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the recent political turn against human rights in the UK.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
See the EHRC's formal announcement, 18th October 2012: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/news/2012/october/commission-welcomes-appointment-of-new-chair/ (Accessed 27th April 2013)
For a discussion of different categories of rights, see Nickel (2012) for example.
O'Neill refers in particular to the liberty rights enshrined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens of 1789—“freedom, property, security and resistance to oppression” (2005b, p. 428).
John Rawls similarly argues that human rights ought to be restricted to a “special class of urgent rights” (1999, p. 79). These include the right to life, liberty, property and equal treatment, all of which might be adhered to despite a plurality of beliefs—they “cannot be rejected as peculiarly liberal or special to the Western tradition. They are not politically parochial” (1999, p. 65). In contrast to Ignatieff however, Rawls includes “means of subsistence” under “the right to life” (ibid) which would include food in extreme circumstances. For a critique of this sort of “lowest common denominator approach” to human rights see for example Nussbaum 2000 and Deveaux 2009.
Here, James builds on the work of Geuss 2001.
“Rights to goods and services are easy to proclaim, but until there are effective institutions their proclamation may seem bitter mockery to those who most need them. Liberty rights are…different because far more is determined even when institutions are missing or weak: as soon as it is possible to state what ought to be provided—non interference—it will also be possible to state who ought to provide: everyone and all institutions ought to do so” (O'Neill 1996a, p. 64).
The UK Human Rights Act incorporates the rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. This means that individuals in the UK can bring claims in domestic courts (as opposed to seeking redress in the ECHR) for alleged breaches of their Convention rights (See Human Rights Act 1998).
Gearty also argues that political calls for exiting the ECHR have been bolstered by relentless attacks on the UK's adherence to human rights legislation by several members of the press, and in particular those working for the Daily Mail. This, he suggests, is fuelled by a dislike for Article 8 of the ECHR which provides for the right to have one's privacy respected (2011, p. 474) and is an obstacle to intrusive forms of journalism.
See the new Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012
I am minded here of Andrew Gamble's (1988) book on the Thatcher era entitled The Free Economy and the Strong State in which he argued that a government which seeks to unfetter the free market does not adopt “laissez-faire” strategies. Quite the opposite, it strengthens its executive powers and weakens those of opposing groups and institutions.
The Government has also proposed to repeal the public sector Equality Duty (Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010) which requires public bodies to “have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between different people when carrying out their activities”. The idea of such duties is to promote good decision making that takes into account the impact that a public institutions' strategies and functions have on a range of different people and groups. Similarly, the EHRC's Socioeconomic Duty is indentified as a feature to be scrapped—this is the requirement that all public sector institutions consider what impact their strategies and functions might have on socioeconomic disadvantage and to design them in such a way that reduces inequalities of outcome (Section 10 of the Equality Act 2010). Other examples of cuts to the EHRC are the transfer of its telephone advice line and conciliation services to a private company.
This is a view shared by several key equality and human rights organizations which joined together to express their fears to O'Neill in an open letter; “The UN, which awarded [the EHRC] ‘A’ status as a human rights institution, has warned that the new arrangements governing the relationship between ministers and the EHRC ‘significantly limits its freedom to determine priorities without undue influence from government’”. See: http://www.bihr.org.uk/sites/default/files/Open_letter_EHRC_Oct2012.pdf
See also Letter from the Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights (7th November 2012) to Onora O'Neill(as Chair of EHRC) on the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill 2013a http://www.parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/human-rights/Letter_to_Baroness_O'Neill_71112.pdf
References
BBC. (2013). ‘Theresa May: tories to consider leaving European Convention on Human Rights’ BBC News, politics website. See link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21726612 (Accessed 27th March 2013).
Cameron, D. (2012). Speech to the confederation of British Industry. UK Government. 19th November. See link: http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speech-to-cbi/(Accessed 27th February 2013).
Department for Business and Innovation Skills. (2012). Implementing employee owner status. Government response to consultation. UK Government. See link: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/employment-matters/docs/i/12-1338-implementing-employee-owner-status-government-response.pdf (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Deveaux, M. (2009). Normative liberal theory and the bifurcation of human rights. Ethics and Global Politics, 2(3), 171–191.
Donnelly, J. (2003). Universal human rights in theory and Practice (3rd ed.). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act. (2013a). Department for Business and Innovation Skills. UK Government. See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/24/contents/enacted. (Access 11th July 2013).
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act. (2013b). Policy paper. June 2013. Department for Business and Innovation Skills. UK Government. See link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/209896/bis-13-905-enterprise-and-regulatory-reform-act-2013-policy.pdf (Access 11th July 2013).
European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe. See link: http://www.echr.coe.int/NR/rdonlyres/D5CC24A7-DC13-4318-B457-5C9014916D7A/0/Convention_ENG.pdf (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Gamble, A. (1988). The free market and the strong state: the politics of Thatcherism. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Gearty, C. (2011). Beyond the human rights act. In T. Campbell, K. Ewing, & A. Tomkins (Eds.), The legal protection of human rights: Sceptical essay (pp. 472–486). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Geuss, R. (2001). History and illusion in politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hepple, B. (2013). Section 3 of the Equality Act 2006. Appeal posted to YouTube 11th April 2013: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxJZOrfRaLU (Accessed 11th July 2013).
Holmes, S., & Sunstein, C. (1999). The costs of rights. New York: W.W. Norton.
House of Lords Constitution Committee. (2013). Evidence session no. 1. 13 February 2013. See Link: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-committees/constitution/President%20Supreme%20Court/130213sctranscript.pdf (Accessed 9th April 2013).
Human Rights Act. (1998). See link: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/contents (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Ignatieff, M. (2001). Human rights as politics and idolatry. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Inter Ministerial Group on Equalities. (2010). The HM government equality strategy—building a Fairer Britain. UK Government. See link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/85299/equality-strategy.pdf (Accessed 27th February 2013).
James, S. (2005a). Realizing rights as enforceable claims. In A. Kuper (Ed.), Global responsibilities: Who must deliver on human rights? London: Routledge.
James, S. (2005b). Rights, moral and enforceable: a reply to Saladin Meckled-Garcia. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, 105, 149–153.
Joint Committee on Human Rights. (2012). Equality and human rights commission pre-appointment hearing. Uncorrected Transcript of Oral Evidence. HC 634. UK Parliament. 16 October 2012 See link: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/humanrights/uncorrected_transcript_16_October_ONeill.pdf (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Kant, I. (1785). In L. Denis (2005) (Ed.), Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals. Peterborough, ON: Broadview.
Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act. (2012). See link: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/10/contents/enacted (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Christopher Grayling. (2013). ‘Judicial review: proposals for reform’. Consultation Paper CP25/2012. Ministry of Justice. UK Government. See Link: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/judicial-review-reform (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Lord Lester of Herne Hill. (2012). House of Lords, 14th November. Second reading, enterprise and regulatory reform bill: Column 1533. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldhansrd/text/121114-0001.htm (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Lord Lester of Herne Hill. (2013). House of Lords, 9th January. Grand committee, enterprise and regulatory reform Bill: Column GC51. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldhansrd/text/130109-gc0001.htm (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Lord Low of Dalston. (2013). House of Lords, 9th January. Grand committee, enterprise and regulatory reform bill: Column GC46. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldhansrd/text/130109-gc0001.htm (Accessed 27th February2013).
Meckled-Garcia, S. (2005). Neo-positivism about rights the problem with ‘rights as enforceable claims’. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, 105, 143–148.
Nickel, J. (2009). A defense of welfare rights as human rights. In T. Christiano & J. Christman (Eds.), Contemporary debates in political philosophy. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Nickel, J. (2012). Human rights. Stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy, See link: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rights-human/ (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Nussbaum, M. (2000). Women and human development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O'Neill, O. (1988). Hunger, needs and rights. In S. Luper-Foy (Ed.), Problems of international justice. Boulder: Westview.
O'Neill, O. (1996a). Women's rights: whose obligations? In A. Jeffries (Ed.), Women's voices, women's rights: Oxford amnesty lectures 1996. Boulder: Westview.
O'Neill, O. (1996b). Towards justice and virtue. A constructive account of practical reasoning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O'Neill, O. (2000). Bounds of justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O'Neill, O. (2002). A question of trust. Lecture 2: Trust and terror. BBC Reith Lectures. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2002/ (Accessed 27th February 2013).
O'Neill, O. (2005a). Agents of justice. In A. Kuper (Ed.), (2005) Global responsibilities: Who must deliver on human rights? London: Routledge.
O'Neill, O. (2005b). The dark side of human rights. International Affairs, 81, Number 2.
O'Neill, O. (2012). Letter (as Chair of the EHRC) to the Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the topic of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. See http://www.parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/human-rights/Baroness_O'Neill_on_Enterprise_Regulatory_Reform_Bill.pdf.
O'Neill, O. (2013). The times. May 25th.
Rawls, J. (1999, 2002). The law of peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Section 3 of the Equality Act (2006). See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/3/section/3
Sen, A. (2004). Elements of a theory of human rights. Philosophy and Public Affairs 32, No. 4. See link: http://humanright-ias.com/cmslogin/news/file1/file1-1311.pdf (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Shue, H. (1996). Basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and U.S. Foreign Policy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tasioulas, J. (2007). The moral reality of human rights. In T. Pogge (Ed.), Freedom from poverty as a human right: who owes what to the very poor? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (1947). United Nations website. See link: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ (Accessed 27th February 2013).
Acknowledgments
Sincerest thanks to Umar Salam and two anonymous expert reviewers for excellent comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Browne, J. O'Neill and the Political Turn Against Human Rights. Int J Polit Cult Soc 26, 291–304 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-013-9149-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-013-9149-4