The Rights Revolution

Michael Ignatieff

• Publisher: House of Anansi Press
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780887848926
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Diritti umani

With an updated preface by the author.

Since the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, rights have become the dominant language of the public good around the globe. Indeed, rights have become the trump card in every argument. Long-standing fights for aboriginal rights, the issue of preserving the linguistic heritage of minorities, and same-sex marriage have steered our society into a full-blown rights revolution. This revolution is not only deeply controversial in North America, but is being watched around the world. Are group rights jeopardizing individual rights? When everyone asserts their rights, what happens to responsibilities? Can families survive and prosper when each member has rights? Is rights language empowering individuals while weakening community?

Michael Ignatieff confronts these controversial questions head-on in The Rights Revolution, defending the supposed individualism of rights language against all comers. For Ignatieff, believing in rights means believing in politics, believing in deliberation rather than confrontation, compromise rather than violence.

INDEX

aboriginal peoples, 14, 81, 129

abuse of, 75, 115

assimilation of, 60, 64, 75, 83

and citizenship, 60, 63

and constitutional reform, 7, 116, 117

individual freedoms of, 19

inequality of, 63

as minorities, 66

as nations, 28, 58–59, 61, 66, 67, 73, 80

vs. non-aboriginals, 18, 68, 82, 83–84, 114, 123

in other countries, 8, 60

redress for, 74, 115

rights denied to, 59, 60

social conditions of, 15–16

treaty agreements with, 8, 58–59, 80–81, 121

as wards of the state, 59, 63

aboriginal rights, 1, 11, 16, 20, 28, 74, 76, 77, 79, 116, 118, 119, 123 See also land rights

resources; self-government

treaty rights in Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 7, 12, 65

as pre-existing, 28, 58–59

abortion, 7, 85, 90, 137

absolutism, moral, 17, 137

abundance, 91–93

abuse, 22, 23. See also child abuse; redress; women

of immigrants and refugees, 37, 130–31

protection from, 28, 88, 123

of rights, 37–38, 49, 50–52

Acadians, 120

access rights, 118adjudication, 9, 11, 25, 31, 82, 94, 110, 121, 126

of competing rights claims, 31, 76, 80

adoption rights, 86, 110

affirmative action, 11, 12, 74, 88.

See also redress

Afghanistan, 140

Africa, 44

agency, 23, 39, 41, 109, 111

and human difference, 53

and human rights, 43, 44, 53

and identity, 24, 53

Alberta, 38, 125

anglop...