ABSTRACT
The response is rooted in the moral interest in the extended-community worldview perspective that is created by the concept of human rights. The human-rights approach operates rather differently from the charity approach. There are three principal justifications for human rights: legal, interest-based, and agency-based. Legal justifications for particular operative human rights may change over time, but they may also remain unchanged over time, even though the times themselves change significantly. Legal grounding of human rights requires a considerable measure of specificity tailored to particular institutional settings in particular times and places. Next perspective on human rights seeks a moral justification via an interest-based approach—that is, an interest in protecting one's well-being. The interest-based perspective looks at an end product—well-being—and tries to figure out what is needed to get there. Agency-based justifications of human rights assert that policies to promote well-being are best served by identifying those specific goods most conducive to the pursuit of well-being.
