Keywords
human rights
victims' rights
legal mobilization
How to Cite
Abstract
This article explores the potential effects of the use of human rights in framing claims for achieving social change. The discourse of human rights provides a conception of social justice based on dignity and equality. Thus, calling upon the human rights discourse can support social justice and land claims. However, in practice, the effects of a legal mobilization of the human rights discourse include not only benefits, but also dilemmas and risks for social and political struggles. I argue that utilization of the human rights discourse seems not to be an ideal strategy for achieving social change and the protection of land rights. However, in some contexts this discourse strongly contributes to empowerment of underprivileged and excluded people, making visible unjust situations and offering an alternative reality based on equality and dignity. At the very least, it can become a symbol of those ideals, inspiring social mobilization for change.This journal is registered under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Thus, this work may be reproduced, distributed, and publicly shared in digital format, as long as the names of the authors and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are acknowledged. Others are allowed to quote, adapt, transform, auto-archive, republish, and create based on this material, for any purpose (even commercial ones), provided the authorship is duly acknowledged, a link to the original work is provided, and it is specified if changes have been made. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana does not hold the rights of published works and the authors are solely responsible for the contents of their works; they keep the moral, intellectual, privacy, and publicity rights.
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