An interpretation of human rights that centers on the rhetorical--and religious--power of testimony.
Jeremy Bentham described the idea of human rights as "rhetorical nonsense." In Reimagining Human Rights, William O'Neill shows that the rhetorical aspect of human rights is in fact crucial. By examining how victims and their advocates embrace the rhetoric of human rights to tell their stories, he presents an interpretation of human rights "from below," showing what victims of atrocity and advocates do with rights.
Drawing on African writings that center around victims' stories--including Desmond Tutu's on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission--and modern Roman Catholic social teaching, O'Neill reconciles the false dichotomy between the individualistic perspective of the human rights theories of Immanuel Kant, J
O'Neill, William R.
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