Lived truths: A critical engagement with universalism

In this chapter, I argue that Western liberal influences on international human rights law lead to a version of universalism of human rights that is disconnected with reality, and thus misrepresents the actual development of human rights. Relying on Third World Approaches to International Law, I deconstruct the abstract language of human rights to draw from it a version of universalism which emphasizes the lived experiences of marginalized and underrepresented people, such as, in the case of property, slum dwellers, people living in remote areas, land workers, refugees, indigenous peoples, nomadic peoples, tenants, and the homeless. I suggest that a common denominator that ties human rights together is that they are routinely framed as claims of social participation. This ‘lived’ universalism is bottom-up, dialogical, and takes into account the complex network of relationships that surrounds social human beings in location. It embraces power dynamics rather than hide behind a language of elevated reason.