Less is More or More is More? Revisiting Universality of Human Rights
Less is More or More is More? Revisiting Universality of Human Rights

Summary/Abstract: Human rights are much talked about and much written about, in academic legal literature as well as in political and other social sciences and the general political debate. Indeed, they are so often referred to and used as a basis for claims of various kinds that there may be a risk of certain “inflation” in that so much is said to be a human right that the notion loses its essential meaning. Another danger of the expansive look on human rights is that the idea of the universality of rights, which is one of the philosophical underpinnings of the phenomena, is lost. May it be so, that if more and more is said to be a human right, in fact the importance of the rights is instead reduced? Perhaps fewer but stronger rights can better serve the original purpose of universal human rights? On the other hand, it is possible that the notion of human rights is expandable and adding more to it does not detract from the previously existing rights.

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