Johanna Ohlsson (Lund University) and Johanna Romare (University College Stockholm) will present an ethical analysis of human rights justifications, their moral status, and the risks involved when human rights are treated as instruments of governance.

This seminar offers an ethical analysis of human rights justifications, examining their moral status and the risks involved when human rights are treated as instruments of governance. Rather than taking human rights at face value, we critically investigate the boundaries between morally acceptable and unacceptable uses of human rights as justificatory tools, particularly when states invoke them to legitimise political decisions and actions. Drawing on theories from moral philosophy – instrumentalist, deontological, and republican – we explore how each framework evaluates human rights justifications. Special attention is given to how these theories respond to the strategic or rhetorical deployment of human rights in policy contexts. We argue that while some level of instrumental reasoning is inevitable, there are normative thresholds that must not be crossed if human rights are to retain their ethical and political credibility. Ultimately, we advocate for a more reflexive, principled, and coherent approach to human rights justification – one that balances pragmatic considerations without losing the normative force of human rights. We aim to provide analytical tools to problematise the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate uses of human rights and strengthen their role as constraints on power rather than instruments of it.

A paper to  read beforehand will be circulated on request. Send an email to the contact person for the seminar. 

More about Johanna Romare here.

More about Johanna Ohlsson here.