Critical theory and human rights

This book describes how human rights have given rise to a vision of benevolent governance that if fully realised would be antithetical to individual freedom. It describes human rights' evolution into a grand but nebulous project rooted in compassion with the overarching aim of improving universal welfare by defining the conditions of human well-being and imposing obligations on the state and other actors to realise them. This gives rise to a form of managerialism preoccupied with measuring and improving the 'human rights performance' of the state businesses and so on. The ultimate result is the 'governmentalisation' of a pastoral form of global human rights governance in which power is exercised for the general good moulded by a complex regulatory sphere which shapes the field of action for the individual at every turn. This unsurprisingly does not appeal to rights-holders themselves.