11. Human Rights in the Emerging World Order 12. Joseph Raz on Human Rights A Critical Appraisal推荐.pdfVIP

11 Human Rights in the Emerging World Order Joseph Raz* I will start with some—hopefully truistic—observations about rights, which will lead to a reflection on the role that human rights play in the emerging world order. I say ‘the emerging world order’, for it seems that we are going through a period of fast transition. If it is sensible to date its beginning to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc, then it is clear that its progress is anything but smooth. But I will neither be con- cerned with analysing the prevailing forces pressing for the remoulding of the shape of our world, nor with predicting its likely future direction. Rather my observations are those of a spectator commenting on one aspect of the process: that concerning the role that claims of individual rights, and the attempts to implement them, play and can use- fully play in it. Recognition and implementation of individual rights are not necessarily the most important aspects of the emerging world order. But there is no denying that its emer- gence is accompanied by extensive debates about human rights, and intensive efforts to secure their implementation. My discussion of the place of rights in the world order is conducted against the background of this hectic activity. I will use two rights to illus- trate some of my points: the right to education and the right to health. The right to education is recognized in a variety of international treaties. Perhaps the main location is the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR),1 which in Article 26(1) declares: * Thomas M Macioce Professor of Law, Columbia University, and formerly Professor of The Philosophy of Law, University of Oxford. This article is an expanded and revised version of the lecture I gave at the opening plenary session of the 24th IVR World Congress in Beijing, September 20