Chapter 4
Rights
Introduction
Nowadays the rhetoric of human rights seems to be just about
universal. No tyrants, no autocracy, seem to be so benighted that
they refuse, in public at least, to endorse the claims of human
rights. In practice they may jail or torture political opponents, or
refuse to educate women, but when applying for aid to the United
Nations they will give solemn assurances that human rights are
respected in their jurisdiction, respected at least as far as is prac-
tical under conditions of emergency, respected at least in point of
intent: that when the current crisis has been alleviated, normal
conditions will be swiftly resumed. ‘Normal conditions’, of
course, will comprise the promotion and protection of a standard
list of human rights. The ‘standard list’ is likely to be provided by
the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights or
the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights. If
any political principles have been elevated to the pantheon of
political correctness, to the point where denial of them taints the