Human Rights as a concept has undergone major transformation during the span of last three millennia; where the evolution spans from ancient moral philosophies to globally recognised frameworks that culminates in the foundational doctrines established after the second world war. The first official legal document – after the Magna Carta – was the English Bill of Rights in 1689 that established parliamentary supremacy over monarchy. Then came the US Declaration of Independence in 1776, followed by the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the citizen. Finally, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights document formed the basis of a comprehensive legal framework. However, the onset of neoliberal globalisation has posed a fundamental challenge to the existing legal framework.
Neoliberal policies - like the privatisation of health care, education, and housing – often undermine the rights to a decent standard of living. Neoliberalism treats basic human needs as market commodities, rather than universal entitlements. In other words, market-centred approach obstructs the realisation of socio-economic aspect human rights since it focuses on the autonomy of the individual. Critiques argue that the very focus individualism masks structural economic inequalities and systemic injustices, framing poverty and marginalization as individual failures rather than the outcomes of policy. Neoliberal framework – contrary to our theoretical understanding - advocates strong state intervention in order to protect property rights, enforce contracts, and manage global capital flows. This results in states relieving their social responsibilities while at the same time expanding their coercive and regulatory capacities. Thus, there exists structural tension between human rights and the contemporary neoliberal order. I argue that neoliberal globalisation is inimical to the protection of human rights and antithetical to the theory of natural rights.
In the above stated backdrop, following qualitative research methodology framework, the paper addresses few pertinent questions: (a) what has been the exact nature of equation between neoliberal form of globalisation and human rights? (b) How far it is true that neoliberal discourse is antithetical to human rights?
