An Optimistic Future for Human Rights: Empowerment, Accountability, and Inclusion

Are human rights truly in their “endtimes”? Sally Merry challenges this argument by

adopting a more flexible lens on human rights, highlighting its value in tackling various social

justice issues and documenting and exposing injustices (2021). In line with Merry’s argument, I

agree that human rights are not yet at endtimes. Rather than coming to a halt, human rights are

adapting to the culture and values of the 21st century– addressing shortcomings of the initial

human rights movement while grappling with critical challenges such as climate change and

gender-based violence. Correspondingly, human rights work is distributing power more

equitably, critically reflecting on what the roles of corporations and outside entities should be,

and reframing what and whose rights are being protected. Through this more comprehensive and

reflective approach on human rights work, we can be optimistic about its future direction and

impact.

One pivotal improvement in human rights work has been the equitable redistribution of

power. Specifically, more power is taken out of the hands of outside, intervening parties and

placed into the hands of the marginalized people whose rights are being violated. Duncan Green

(2016) underscored this value of empowerment and supporting this “power within” individuals,

so we can break down the “invisible powers” that prevent local leaders and community members

from believing they can change their own circumstances. By empowering individuals, this

subsequently fuels collective empowerment and power to enact change not only on a larger scale

but also on their own terms. Notably, outside parties (typically from the Global North) are no

longer driving the advocacy efforts to prevent further rights violations.

This critical transition from a “saviorism” to an “empowerment” approach in human

rights has also been adopted into the legal sphere, where lawyers are playing supporting rather
than leading roles. Through critical legal empowerment, marginalized groups have increased

access to justice, as they have the tools to advocate for themselves and voice their own demands

through their own actions (Satterthwaite, 2022). Diverging from previous human rights work,

this redistribution of power is more inclusive of the different stakeholders involved and

empowers local actors and grassroots groups to have more control over their own justice.

In addition to redefining asymmetric power distributions, human rights are increasingly

holding large corporations accountable for violations and engaging in discussions about the role

of corporations in advocacy efforts. For example, ClientEarth’s legal complaint against the large

agricultural corporation Cargill highlights how corporations can be held accountable not only for

failure to execute environmental due diligence procedures but also failure to protect the rights of

the communities impacted by the corporation’s operations (ClientEarth, 2023). This case

highlights the optimistic direction of human rights, as powerful corporations are no longer

insulated entities in the human rights realm. Instead, their impact on the environment and

marginalized communities are now in the public eye, as more organizations are monitoring and

exposing violations to hold corporations accountable.

In fact, there is greater reflection on what the exact role of corporations should be in

human rights, if they should even have one. Lin (2022) argues how through “corporate social

activism,” activists can leverage the power and global distribution of corporations to raise

awareness and implement broadscale change. Although I do not completely agree with Lin’s

view on mixing capitalism and activism, opening this dialogue about how powerful stakeholders

like corporations can promote rather than violate human rights reflects an optimistic step; this

demonstrates how people are critically reflecting on current gaps in human rights and trying to

address them or find new solutions.

 Combined with greater empowerment and accountability, this idea of reframing what and

whose rights are being protected is another factor that increases my optimism for the future of

human rights. Through shifting frames, people can expand interpretations of old policies to be

more inclusive of what is a rights-bearing entity and establish new precedents for the

participation of marginalized voices. The Sarayaku v. Ecuador case demonstrated a pivotal

example of how policies can be reinterpreted to adopt a more flexible lens. The Sarayaku

successfully recognized Indigenous people’s rights to informed consultation and their power to

freely veto activities that affect them, their land, and future generations (Rodriguez-Garavito &

Baquero-Diaz, 2023). Their advocacy for protections (in the long-term) of the rights of future

generations and rights of nature demonstrate how flexibility in the human rights framework

enables subsequent human rights work to raise awareness of and integrate a variety of rising

social justice issues, locally and globally (such as climate change).

In essence, rather than coming to an “endtimes,” human rights are embarking on a new

frontier— one that is reframing advocacy through a social justice lens to promote empowerment,

accountability, and inclusion. These ideas align with the argument of viewing human rights as an

“ecosystem,” embracing equal partnerships, collaboration, and flexible applications into various

intersecting advocacy efforts (Rodriguez-Garavito, 2021). As a result, human rights are shedding

obsolete ideas of saviorism and long-held hierarchies and instead centering the marginalized

voices and experiences of humans at the forefront of these violations. This evolution of human

rights makes me more optimistic about efforts to address previous shortcomings and tackle new

challenges, as we pave the path for a more humane human rights future.
 References

ClientEarth. (2023, May 4). Agricultural giant Cargill faces legal complaint over deforestation

and human rights failings in Brazil. https://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-

office/press/agricultural-giant-cargill-faces-legal-complaint-over-deforestation-and-

human-rights-failings-in-brazil/

Green, D. (2016). How Change Happens, pp. 28-46. Oxford University Press.

Lin, T. (2022). The Capitalist and the Activist: Corporate Social Activism and the New Business

of Change. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Merry, S. E. (2006). Human Rights & Gender Violence: Translating International Law in Local

Justice, pp. 72-102.

Rodríguez-Garavito, C., & Baquero-Díaz, C. A. (2022). Reframing Indigenous Rights. In G. de

Búrca (Ed.), Legal Mobilization for Human Rights (pp.73-88). Oxford University Press.

Rodríguez-Garavito, C. (2021). Human Rights 2030: Existential Challenges and a New Paradigm

for the Human Rights Field. In N. Bhuta, F. Hoffmann, S. Knuckey, F. Mégret, M.

Satterthwaite (Eds.), The Struggle for Human Rights: Essays in Honour of Philip Alston.

Oxford University Press.

Satterthwaite, M. (2022). Critical Legal Empowerment for Human Rights. In G. de Búrca (Ed.),

Legal Mobilization for Human Rights (pp. 89-121). Oxford University Press.