ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to illuminate the status of prevailing international human rights theory by contributing a genealogical perspective to the contemporary theorizing. It examines the origins of the reigning theoretical framework by considering the historical and the political circumstances that attended the development of the theory. The chapter explains how a genealogical approach clarifies the problems in the reigning paradigm. It also explores further the dichotomies in the prevailing theory, thereby clarifying the puzzling status of the contemporary human rights theory. The chapter then examines the international human rights movement today, incorporating a genealogical perspective and clarifying the contemporary movement's intimate and uneasy relation to its original historical and political circumstances. Rights generation casts the human rights story in terms of the broader human condition—of scientific, historical, and political generations. Human rights practices emphasize the relationship between the international legal system and other legal domains.
