Etzioni, Amitai: The Normativity of Human Rights Is Self-Evident

Human Rights Quarterly
Volume 32, Number 1, February 2010pp. 187-197Subject Headings:
Human rights - Moral and ethical aspects.Abstract:
Attempts to justify human rights in terms of other sources of normativity unwittingly weaken the case of human rights. Instead these rights should be treated as moral causes that speak to us directly, as one of those rare precepts that are self-evident. All will hear self-evident moral claims unless they have been severely distracted, and even these persons will hear these claims once they are engaged in open moral dialogue. Oddly, the strongest support for treating human rights as self-evident may well be a consequentialist argument.