Human Rights: Legitimizing a Recent Concept

Elaine Pagels

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The concept of human rights, its origin and applicability, is traced from ancient time to the present to illustrate the evolution of the conceptualization. While the idea that every human being has rights to be recognized is shown to be a fairly recent one, dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is also shown that elements can be selected from traditional cultures to legitimize and support contemporary human rights policies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)57-62
Number of pages6
JournalThe ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Volume442
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1979

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Sociology and Political Science
  • General Social Sciences

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