Sylvanna Martina Falcón
University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY
JAN. 2015
Sylvanna M Falcón, Department of Latin American and Latino Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. Email: smfalcon (at) ucsc.edu
ABSTRACT:
This article explores the production of human rights discourse by
examining the organization and social actors involved in
its construction. The author proposes a triad
constellation configuration for situating the varied engagements of
human rights
by different constituencies at the United Nations
level: dominant understandings, counterpublic approaches, and social
praxis.
Dominant understandings are affiliated with the
Western-legal apparatus, counterpublic approaches embrace antiracist and
feminist
epistemologies, and social praxis is about the
mediation between the first two constellations. This article argues that
the
social praxis constellation is where the discourse
of human rights can be inventive and dynamic because an envisioning of
human rights moves beyond the rubric of civil,
political, social, economic, and cultural rights.
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