Second Generation Rights as Biopolitical Rights Pheng Cheah University of California at Berkeley Pheng Cheah University of California at Berkeley

Human Rights and The Autoimmunity of Sovereignty The Declaration of Human Rights is not…opposed to, and does not limit, the sovereignty of the nation-state in the way a principle of non-sovereignty would oppose a principle of sovereignty. [I]t is one sovereignty set against another. Human rights pose and presuppose the human being (who is equal, free, self-determined) as sovereign. The Declaration of Human Rights declares another sovereignty; it thus reveals the autoimmunity of sovereignty in general. Jacques Derrida The Declaration of Human Rights is not…opposed to, and does not limit, the sovereignty of the nation-state in the way a principle of non-sovereignty would oppose a principle of sovereignty. [I]t is one sovereignty set against another. Human rights pose and presuppose the human being (who is equal, free, self-determined) as sovereign. The Declaration of Human Rights declares another sovereignty; it thus reveals the autoimmunity of sovereignty in general. Jacques Derrida

Creating Conditions for Human Rights The ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights. ICESCR, Preamble The ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights. ICESCR, Preamble

The State and the Realization of Human Rights The state is the actuality of concrete freedom The individual attains his right only by becoming the citizen of a good state. Hegel The reality is that the full realization of civil and political rights is heavily dependent both on the availability of resources and the development of the necessary societal structures. The suggestion that realization of civil and political rights requires only abstention on the part of the state and can be achieved without significant expenditure is patently at odds with reality. Philip Alston, former Chairman, UN Committee on ESCR The state is the actuality of concrete freedom The individual attains his right only by becoming the citizen of a good state. Hegel The reality is that the full realization of civil and political rights is heavily dependent both on the availability of resources and the development of the necessary societal structures. The suggestion that realization of civil and political rights requires only abstention on the part of the state and can be achieved without significant expenditure is patently at odds with reality. Philip Alston, former Chairman, UN Committee on ESCR

Human Capacity Building The rapid changes in job-market requirements and needed skills increases the emphasis on training and life-long learning to raise workers’ employability and improve access to employment. Countries need to continually invest in skills and knowledge-development and the training of their workforce in light of these changes, including advances in technology and work organization. The risks are higher for the vulnerable groups and reduce their opportunities and incentives for training. To progress to higher levels of value-added employment (and thus towards higher incomes at the individual and aggregate levels), the population and workforce of the country must steadily improve their knowledge and skills for contributing effectively to the changing job market requirements. Human resources development or human capital formation are essential for sustaining a productive work force. Importantly, as policy attends to the development of both human and social capital, there are two elements that deserve special attention: making new information technologies available to wider segments of the population and building productive assets, especially for the poor men and women at the household level. UN Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific The rapid changes in job-market requirements and needed skills increases the emphasis on training and life-long learning to raise workers’ employability and improve access to employment. Countries need to continually invest in skills and knowledge-development and the training of their workforce in light of these changes, including advances in technology and work organization. The risks are higher for the vulnerable groups and reduce their opportunities and incentives for training. To progress to higher levels of value-added employment (and thus towards higher incomes at the individual and aggregate levels), the population and workforce of the country must steadily improve their knowledge and skills for contributing effectively to the changing job market requirements. Human resources development or human capital formation are essential for sustaining a productive work force. Importantly, as policy attends to the development of both human and social capital, there are two elements that deserve special attention: making new information technologies available to wider segments of the population and building productive assets, especially for the poor men and women at the household level. UN Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific

Biopolitical Rights? Against this power that was still new in the nineteenth century, the forces that resisted relied for support on the very thing it invested, that is, on life and man as a living being.... [W]hat was demanded and what served as an objective was life, understood as the basic needs, man's concrete essence, the realization of his potential, a plenitude of the possible.... [W]hat we have seen has been a very real process of struggle; life as a political object was in a sense taken at face value and turned back against the system that was bent on controlling it. It was life more than the law that became the issue of political struggles, even if the latter were formulated through affirmations concerning rights. The ‘right ’ to life, to one’s body, to health, to happiness, to the satisfaction of needs, and beyond all the oppressions or ‘alienations, ’ the ‘right ’ to rediscover what one is and all that one can be, this ‘right ’ —which the classical juridical system was utterly incapable of comprehending—was the political response to all these new procedures of power which did not derive, either, from the traditional right of sovereignty. Michel Foucault Against this power that was still new in the nineteenth century, the forces that resisted relied for support on the very thing it invested, that is, on life and man as a living being.... [W]hat was demanded and what served as an objective was life, understood as the basic needs, man's concrete essence, the realization of his potential, a plenitude of the possible.... [W]hat we have seen has been a very real process of struggle; life as a political object was in a sense taken at face value and turned back against the system that was bent on controlling it. It was life more than the law that became the issue of political struggles, even if the latter were formulated through affirmations concerning rights. The ‘right ’ to life, to one’s body, to health, to happiness, to the satisfaction of needs, and beyond all the oppressions or ‘alienations, ’ the ‘right ’ to rediscover what one is and all that one can be, this ‘right ’ —which the classical juridical system was utterly incapable of comprehending—was the political response to all these new procedures of power which did not derive, either, from the traditional right of sovereignty. Michel Foucault

The Population and the Sovereign The population escapes the sovereign’s voluntarist and direct action in the form of the law. If one says to the population ‘do this’, there is not only no guarantee that it will do it, but also there is quite simply no guarantee that it can do it The sovereign must deploy reflected procedures of government within this nature, with the help of it, and with regard to it. With the population we have something completely different from the collection of subjects of right differentiated by their status, localization, goods, responsibilities, and offices. Man, as he is thought and defined by the so-called human sciences of the nineteenth century, and as he is reflected in nineteenth century humanism, is nothing other than a figure of population. The population escapes the sovereign’s voluntarist and direct action in the form of the law. If one says to the population ‘do this’, there is not only no guarantee that it will do it, but also there is quite simply no guarantee that it can do it The sovereign must deploy reflected procedures of government within this nature, with the help of it, and with regard to it. With the population we have something completely different from the collection of subjects of right differentiated by their status, localization, goods, responsibilities, and offices. Man, as he is thought and defined by the so-called human sciences of the nineteenth century, and as he is reflected in nineteenth century humanism, is nothing other than a figure of population.

Development and Human Dignity The development process must promote human dignity. The ultimate aim of development is the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population on the basis of its full participation in the process of development and a fair distribution of the benefits therefrom. International Development Strategy, Third United Nations Development Decade The development process must promote human dignity. The ultimate aim of development is the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population on the basis of its full participation in the process of development and a fair distribution of the benefits therefrom. International Development Strategy, Third United Nations Development Decade