The Turn to Human Rights and Its Vulnerabilities

Abstract

Abstract In the post-war period, the foundation of human rights treaties steadily expanded, building on the trunk of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. States largely ignored the treaties and initially little case law was generated. However, from the 1970s international human rights law began to be taken more seriously in democracies, driven by demands such as large migrant populations of uncertain legal status. Citizenship practice evolves in this context, informing the expansion of rights to noncitizen residents and phenomena like dual citizenship. This undergirds what has been called “postnational citizenship.” But key vulnerabilities have meant that this turn makes for an “unfinished revolution.” Human rights have been driven judicially for the most part. This “judicialization of politics” gave sustenance to charges of a democratic deficit, giving ballast to populist movements.