Ancient heritages, human rights and nationalism
Historiallisten juurten merkitys legitimaationa
Abstract
The criticism of human rights has recently become more common in political discussion. This article’s purpose is to analyse how the emergence of the critical historiography of human rights has gained an enthusiastic audience from the far right, and how it has created an intellectual foundation for the resistance to human rights. The historiography of human rights became a fast-growing field following the studies of Lynn Hunt and Samuel Moyn. From the 1990s, it sought to critique the ‘textbook’ narrative of human rights, the idea of a linear progress from ancient philosophy to the French Revolution, through to the creation of the UN human rights system after WWII. In doing so, this critical historiography also raised important points about the fact that human rights were a Western project, reflecting Western values. Conservative commentators took this idea of the cultural context of human rights and their roots in Antiquity and turned it on its head. Especially after the refugee crisis of 2015, xenophobic groups have interpreted problems in migration as proof that aliens are culturally incapable of respecting human rights, reanimating racist tropes from the fascist lexicon, such as the glories of Graeco-Roman Antiquity. The article will explore the political uses of human rights history and the development of rights, but equally the inherent assumptions about the West as a closed community and its values and belonging that have marked the discussion.
Keywords: human rights, human rights history, alt-right, critical historiography, community
