ABSTRACT
Before entering more deeply into the research problem of how to approach an alternative discourse theory of human rights through a problematization of Jurgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action, this chapter presents in broad strokes the general rights discourse. This is not only called for in order to give some background to the human rights subject as a whole but, more importantly, to place a discourse theoretical approach to rights within the research field and contrast it to alternative approaches. The purpose of this book emerged out of what I saw as a problem both in the theoretical rights literature and in the empirical discussion of human rights in the UN at large. Among the predominant kinds of rights discussed in both discourses, political rights were either not analyzed at all or only in terms of negative rights, but very rarely as action-related rights and rights created by their very use, as a discourse theory would presuppose.1 It is to be hoped that this chapter will convince the reader of the relevance of the project and that reflections on a discourse theory of human rights are meaningful.
