Open AccessDisability and the Right to Have Rights
Author(s) -
Tobin Siebers
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
disability studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2159-8371
pISSN - 1041-5718
DOI - 10.18061/dsq.v27i1/2.13
Subject(s) - human rights , citizenship , state (computer science) , political science , fundamental rights , law and economics , right to property , international human rights law , law , sociology , politics , algorithm , computer science
A major debate over human rights discourse concerns whether human rights should be guaranteed by the nation-state based on citizenship or whether they should be guaranteed internationally on the basis of the status of the rights-bearing person as human. This essay intervenes in this debate, via an analysis of Hannah Arendt's idea of the right to have rights, to argue that disability, as a critical indicator of universal human frailty, should provide the basis for international human rights.