Against Human Rights: Film of a Lecture by Slavoj Zizek (NR)

synopsis

Zizek argues that, in their exclusive focus on the prevention of suffering, the doctrine of human rights evacuates politics and retreats back to the terrain of good and evil. By denying the political subjectivity of its victims, he continues, the enforcement of human rights through military and political intervention only serves to preserve those victims as victims, and prepare the way for continued violations of human rights.