Dignity and duty : a dignity based account of human rights and their associated duties

Abstract

This thesis is primarily motivated by a perceived gap in the literature on human rights in how that literature deals with the duties associated with human rights. I argue that we do not have a clear and coherent understanding of what the duties associated with human rights are nor do we have a complete understanding of the nature of the relationship between human rights and the various duties associated with them. This thesis seeks to address these issues. Chapter one addresses the problem of a lack of understanding about what, precisely, is meant when we discuss the concept of a duty. The paper constructs a general model of a duty by breaking it down into its constituent, or molecular, components ...