Civil liberties and human rights have different qualities. Civil liberties are directed at curtailing the state’s power, whereas human-rights claims invariably seek to invoke more state power. Civil liberties aim to protect individual freedom, whereas human-rights claims invariably aim to regulate human behaviour. Civil liberties are premised on a belief in human rationality, whereas a human-rights culture and the legal regulation that flows from it are invariably premised on the belief that individuals are vulnerable and not resourceful.
27 January 2011
Quote of the Day - Jon Holbrook
From Spiked, which is getting better all the time:
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His travel-averse mother cannot find another Ethiop to travel with her on the train ? This should go down in history as the crime of the ages?
ReplyDeleteI can only applaud the fact that this unintended debacle has shifted the bonus and onus of terrorist control to the security forces rather than to the lawyers who would have otherwise profited from it. Are the midlands a gulag? How can the local mosque show less racist prejudice? Mein Gott! Can the Conservative/GlibDem government not solve this moral condomdrum ?
Prior to reading that article I had not been aware that freedom from "social isolation" was a human right. I regard it as a form of self-defence.
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