Unsettling the regime of human rights: Decolonial reflections beyond the law
Keywords:
Human rights, coloniality of law, dispositif, universalism, decolonization, derechos humanos, colonialidad del derecho, dispositivo, uninversalismo, descolonizaciónAbstract
In this article we strive to problematize and unsettle the regime of human rights, critically reflecting around their potential for decolonization. Although the discourse of human rights has been used by multiple actors for the last decades as a tool to channel social claims, the material and substantial conditions of people in the Global South have not really improved. Human rights have not been able to dismantle the oppressive structures of capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism, furthermore, they have been used to uphold and reproduce them. Our reflections in this paper particularly revolve around the coloniality of human rights. Drawing from postcolonial philosophy, decolonial thought, and poststructuralist understandings of power, we start by critiquing the basic premises of the main trends of legal epistemology, establishing our understanding of the coloniality of law, and we continue with a deconstruction of human rights’ pretended universality, problematizing their subject. Finally, we conclude that despite their potential for a strategic use in resistance, human rights will not be able to be decolonized until the ongoing structures of power that were instituted by coloniality five hundred years ago are abolished.
En este artículo tratamos de problematizar y desasentar el régimen de los derechos humanos, reflexionando críticamente en torno a su potencial descolonizador. Si bien el discurso de los derechos humanos ha sido utilizado por múltiples actores durante las últimas décadas como herramienta para canalizar reclamos sociales, las condiciones materiales y sustanciales de las personas en el Sur Global en realidad no han mejorado. Los derechos humanos no han podido desmantelar las estructuras opresivas del capitalismo, el patriarcado y el colonialismo, es más, han sido utilizados para sostenerlas y profundizarlas. Nuestras reflexiones en este artículo giran particularmente en torno a la colonialidad de los derechos humanos. A partir de la filosofía poscolonial, el pensamiento descolonial y las interpretaciones posestructuralistas del poder, comenzamos por criticar las premisas básicas de las principales tendencias de la epistemología jurídica, estableciendo nuestra comprensión de la colonialidad del derecho, y continuamos con una deconstrucción de la pretendida universalidad de los derechos humanos, problematizando su sujeto. Finalmente, concluimos que, a pesar de su potencial para un uso estratégico en la resistencia, los derechos humanos no podrán ser descolonizados hasta que las estructuras de poder vigentes que fueron instituidas por la colonialidad hace quinientos años sean abolidas.
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Copyright (c) 2022 Juan Martín Liotta, Amadeo Szpiga
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