Can Groups Have Human Rights?

Janna Thompson (La Trobe University)

*** Please note that the room for this seminar is B2.20 ***

Some groups have legal rights. But can any group have a human right? Can any group possess (for example) a right to self-determination that is equivalent in meaning and force to an individual’s right to life and liberty? I present a basic objection to the idea that groups can have such rights and show how this objection can be answered.

Bio: Janna Thompson is Professor of Philosophy at La Trobe University. Her main area of research is in ethics and political philosophy. She has written books and articles on global justice, historical responsibility and intergenerational justice. Two of her recent monographs are: Intergenerational Justice: Rights and Responsibilities in an Intergenerational Polity (Routledge, 2008) and Taking Responsibility for the Past: Reparation and Historical Injustice (Polity, 2002).