“Human rights aren’t negotiated”
Surely he’s trolling now.
Of course human rights are negotiated. What else does he think they are? Handed down by god? How does he think the UDHR came into being? Magic? Does he think Eleanor Roosevelt just wrote a list of them and that was that? How does he think the US Bill of Rights happened? How about Magna Carta?
Of course the aim is to declare them universal, binding, permanent, all that, but they’re still enumerated and negotiated (yes, Joly, negotiated) and defended (or violated) by human beings. And yes we do get to say that this new brand of “rights” that you keep talking about are different from existing rights and are in conflict with existing rights. We get to say it, and furthermore, it’s true.
What a buffoon.
Dishonest buffoon.
The divine right of Kings comes to mind as being non-negotiable, until they weren’t.
He’s a lawyer, so he knows very well rights are purely notional until a government commits to protecting them by putting them into law. And if you change location to a jurisdiction that no longer protects that right, then you no longer have that right.
Isn’t JoJo Fox currently negotiating away the rights of women to safe spaces? Does he consider the rights of the Fox to a peaceful and happy life with friends and family? Or is that just for hoity toity barristers?
You know I’m pretty sure that Jo’s thinking goes along the lines of:
What I say are fundamental human rights ARE fundamental and always have been. It’s just that the rest if humanity are not ALL, or have not always, been enlightened enough to agree with me.
Rights only exist when there’s some contention in the first place, otherwise there’d be no need for them. They are obviously negotiated and Maugham knows it perfectly well.