Do Foreigners Have the Same Human Rights as the Rest of Us?
Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law 2011
35 Pages Posted: 4 Jul 2011
Date Written: July 4, 2011
Abstract
At the core of human rights is the axiomatic truth that human beings have inherent rights: that all human beings are equal and possessed of dignity and that violation of such rights is both morally offensive and legally impermissible. An alternative ordering of human relationships is mandated by exclusive national citizenship. Implicitly and explicitly national citizenship counsels the primacy of the privileged 'citizen' over the 'non-citizen' 'other'. Everywhere we see the manifestation of this ordering in gross, systematic and widespread human rights violations: in our laws, practices, attitudes and media. Some of 'us' are the privileged beneficiaries of those violations: and we violate the human rights of foreigners as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Keywords: human rights, non-citizens, foreigners, non-discrimination, equality, migrant workers, asylum seekers, refugees, undocumented migrants, racism, freedom of movement
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