Human Rights as a Political Doctrine – The Case of the Freedom of Conscience

Abstract

This essay argues that the doctrine of human rights is an essentially political, and not a moral or philosophical issue. After introducing the concept of political doctrine, I focus on classic authors from Locke to Burke, from Vitoria to Paine, from Mill to Stephen, to show how the doctrine was formed within specific political contexts. I also argue that although in the 19th century, the Catholic Church was widely regarded as the fiercest opponent of the freedom of conscience, surely a fundamental human right, the theological tradition of the Church was essentially ambivalent. She was supportive of the natural freedom of conscience, but for the well-known theological reason of the corruption of human nature, she was wary of the freedom of conscience being enshrined as a political right, thereby 
reinforcing the political nature of the doctrine. Further, it will also be shown that this  ‘right’ has been firmly connected to specific (mostly ecclesiastical) institutional forms (universities, legal processes), and that during the robust democratisation of the Western world, individuals have become the ‘institutional forms’ of these rights, hence the application of political concepts such as sovereignty, self-determination, self-governing to individuals. The massive political power of human rights defence movements and organisations confirms the political nature of their underlying ideological commitments. Thus, notwithstanding the moral and philosophical efforts to found and defend human rights, both their historical origins and their contemporary role make them an essentially political doctrine.