DIFFERENCE AND DIFFERENCES

key concepts in the theory of human rights and for human rights education

Abstract

The essay examines the concept of difference in two important areas of human rights theory, which in turn influence human rights education since they are central for the exercise and defense of human rights in daily life. First, the text analyzes the tension between two pairs of opposing features present in the relationship among individual, society and human species:  Similarity VERSUS Difference, and its complement Unity VERSUS Diversity. Human rights theory builds a dialectic relationship between these pairs of features which leads to two fundamental outcomes of the theory: the concept of person or subject of rights, and the concept of the most suitable social organization to further his/her development and rights, democracy. Secondly, difference as a plural notion is discussed, in the sense of identifying dissimilar types of differences among people, in particular legitimate or illegitimate differences. They differ in their origin and value in the defense of human rights, and ask for very distinct attitudes and conducts: legitimate differences ask for understanding and tolerance; illegitimate differences for rejection and challenge. The text goes deeper into the social situation triggered by not understanding the legitimate differences among persons, which leads to the pervasive evil of discrimination, cause of the denial of human rights to many social groups.