ABSTRACT
Liberal theories of rights from Immanuel Kant to John Rawls present the self as a solitary and rational entity, in full control of himself, endowed with natural characteristics and rights. Human rights are such a mediator, facilitating or hindering recognition. Human rights acknowledge the radical inter-subjectivity of human identity. Rights play an important role in the emergence of the adult person/citizen by serving symbolic, imaginary and real functions. Rights offer the minimum recognition of abstract humanity, based on the minimum similarity of all. As endless desire and escalating fears increasingly dominate relationships, communities start fragmenting. Desire is always the desire of the other and signifies precisely the excess of demand over need. The attainment of identity through the desire and recognition of the other fails even in those cases in which human rights are successful on the surface and succeed in legalizing desire. Fully positivized rights and legalized desire extinguish the self-creating potential of human rights.
