Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 2001
Rights
Abstract
This article critically looks at the human rights project as a damning three-dimensional metaphor that exposes multiple complexes. It argues that the grand narrative of human rights contains a subtext which depicts an epochal contest pitting savages, on the one hand, against victims and saviors, on the other. The savages-victims-saviors (SVS) construction lays bare some of the hypocrisies of the human rights project and asks human rights thinkers and advocates to become more self-reflective. The piece questions the universality and cultural neutrality of the human rights project. It calls for the construction of a truly universal human rights corpus, one that is multicultural, inclusive, and deeply political.
Publication Title
Harvard International Law Journal
First Page
201
Last Page
245
Recommended Citation
Makau w. Mutua,
Savages, Victims, and Saviors: The Metaphor of Human Rights,
42
Harv. Int'l L.J.
201
(2001).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles/570