A Suicide Foretold: How Social Justice Rhetoric is Turning People off Human Rights

Mar 24, 2022 by Jill

by Nicolas Agostini, Quillette:

Something strange is happening to the human rights discourse. Few people are paying attention, but like a cat whose hair bristles before the unknown, close observers have switched to alert mode.

What are we talking about? New phraseologies. Established human rights language giving way to slogans. Neologisms. Hyperboles and metalepses. Instances of pure linguistic engineering. Social justice rhetoric, much of it coming from a critical theory perspective, is making its way into the human rights movement.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with these innovations. Languages are living organisms. They change as the needs of speakers and societies evolve, and tropes appear when new realities emerge. New words, new uses, and new meanings make sense in their own context. Human rights aren’t a frozen monolith either. As tools to check how power is exercised, formulate grievances, and uphold dignity, human rights are open to change.

However, winning human rights battles depends on bringing ordinary people on board the human rights cause—and it starts with the language we use. As a human rights advocate and researcher, I’ve witnessed how recent rhetorical shifts are turning people off human rights. This is happening in three different ways and at three distinct levels: when we do advocacy with the general public, when we interact in the private sphere, and when we deliberate within the human rights movement itself.

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