Conclusion

Abstract

Rights, including human rights, require recognition. To declare or to proclaim rights is not enough. To assert that humans have rights qua human, or that humans have rights to make certain worthwhile activities or states of being possible, is not enough. These declarations, proclamations and moral arguments are important, however. It is through them that claims to rights are often articulated. However, without recognition—whether formal or informal—these alone are not enough. The aim of this book has been to set out a theory of recognition plausible enough to justify this bold claim.