Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Resisting panic : Lessons about the role of human rights during the long decade after 9/11

Scheinin, Martin LU orcid (2012) 9781107016248. p.293-306
Abstract

What the world has seen since the atrocious terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, and the counter-terrorism measures states have taken by way of their response, can be characterised as the worst-ever backlash against the promotion and protection of human rights since their post-Second World War emergence in the UN Charter (1945) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948). In this sense, the ‘long decade’ has meant the winding back of the clock by sixty years. As many of the challenges posed by states in relation to the normative code of legally binding human rights relate to what was a major achievement in 1976, namely the entry into force as legally binding international treaties of the twin Covenants, one could... (More)

What the world has seen since the atrocious terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, and the counter-terrorism measures states have taken by way of their response, can be characterised as the worst-ever backlash against the promotion and protection of human rights since their post-Second World War emergence in the UN Charter (1945) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948). In this sense, the ‘long decade’ has meant the winding back of the clock by sixty years. As many of the challenges posed by states in relation to the normative code of legally binding human rights relate to what was a major achievement in 1976, namely the entry into force as legally binding international treaties of the twin Covenants, one could equally well say that in legal terms the reversal that began in 2001 was of twenty-five years of human rights protection. But if we focus on practices that have reduced the human person to a mere means, such as in the idea of torturing one individual in the expectation of a benefit to a large group of persons, we can speak instead about turning back the clock by 200 years, to times before the wide approval of Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy with its imperative of treating every human being as an end in him-or herself.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Human rights, Mänskliga rättigheter
host publication
The Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law
volume
9781107016248
pages
14 pages
publisher
Cambridge University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:84924088231
ISBN
9781107016248
9781139060875
DOI
10.1017/CCO9781139060875.021
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
23ecefc0-62b8-499f-96cb-4bc1aa7cd5ef
date added to LUP
2025-05-21 10:37:52
date last changed
2025-06-04 20:22:46
@inbook{23ecefc0-62b8-499f-96cb-4bc1aa7cd5ef,
  abstract     = {{<p>What the world has seen since the atrocious terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, and the counter-terrorism measures states have taken by way of their response, can be characterised as the worst-ever backlash against the promotion and protection of human rights since their post-Second World War emergence in the UN Charter (1945) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948). In this sense, the ‘long decade’ has meant the winding back of the clock by sixty years. As many of the challenges posed by states in relation to the normative code of legally binding human rights relate to what was a major achievement in 1976, namely the entry into force as legally binding international treaties of the twin Covenants, one could equally well say that in legal terms the reversal that began in 2001 was of twenty-five years of human rights protection. But if we focus on practices that have reduced the human person to a mere means, such as in the idea of torturing one individual in the expectation of a benefit to a large group of persons, we can speak instead about turning back the clock by 200 years, to times before the wide approval of Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy with its imperative of treating every human being as an end in him-or herself.</p>}},
  author       = {{Scheinin, Martin}},
  booktitle    = {{The Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law}},
  isbn         = {{9781107016248}},
  keywords     = {{Human rights; Mänskliga rättigheter}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{293--306}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  title        = {{Resisting panic : Lessons about the role of human rights during the long decade after 9/11}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCO9781139060875.021}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/CCO9781139060875.021}},
  volume       = {{9781107016248}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}