Foucault and Human Rights: Seeking the Renewal of Human Rights Education

This article takes up Foucault’s politics of human rights andsuggests that it may constitute a point of departure for therenewal of HRE, not only because it rejects the moralsuperiority of humanism—the grounding for the dominantliberal framework of international human rights—but alsobecause it makes visible the complexities of human rights asillimitable and as strategic tools for new political struggles.Enriching human rights critiques has important implicationsfor HRE, precisely because these critiques prevent thedominance of unreflexive and unproductive forms of HRE thatlead toward a declarationalist, conservative and uncriticalapproach. It is argued that Foucault’s critical affirmation ofhuman rights—that is, an approach which is neither a fullembrace nor a total rejection—provides a critique that can bedisruptive to the conventional HRE approach and createsopenings that might renew HRE, both politically andpedagogically.