Between Rights and Responsibilities A Fundamental Debate

The last decade has witnessed an increased criticism against the human rights paradigm for its obsession with the 'culture of claims and rights.' According to the critics, this culture has led to an obsession with the rights of individuals at the expense of due attention to groups and to communities worldwide, resulting in the neglect of responsibilities and duties. It is also argued that there should be a shift from the Western emphasis on the rights for individuals to more attention to the responsibilities of individuals and collectivities as present in other cultures of the world. Several documents have been drafted to this effect. These discussions, and the ensuing documents, are far from only theoretical or abstract. They bear consequences in everyday life as evidenced in a number of areas, such as globalization, terrorism, multiculturalism, etc. This book examines this important human rights debate.

Stephan Parmentier studied law, political science and sociology at the universities of Ghent and Leuven (Belgium) and sociology and conflict resolution at the Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (U.S.A.). He currently teaches sociology of crime, law, and human rights at the Faculty of Law of the University of Leuven and is the former head of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology (2005-2009). He is in charge of international relations in criminology at Leuven University and in July 2010 was appointed Secretary-General of the International Society for Criminology (re-elected in August 2014). He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Oxford Centre of Criminology and the International Centre for Transitional Justice (New York). He has served as a visiting professor (Oñati, San José, Sydney, Tilburg, Tokyo), visiting scholar (Oxford, Stellenbosch, Sydney) and guest lecturer in the fields of human rights, criminology and socio-legal studies. He is editor of the newly established Restorative Justice International Journal (Hart Publishing, Oxford). He co-directs the Flemish Interuniversity Network on Law and Development and co-organises the summer course on Human Rights for Development. He also serves as a referee to the ERC funding scheme of the European Union, and other national and international research foundations.