Abstract

This article analyzes the role of human rights as tools for political freedom in present-day globalization. The globalization of human rights, at present perverted by a self-interested and partial choice of what can be globalized –above all the free market system-, is essential for the democratic functioning of the new world organization. However, if human rights are to fulfill this function we must first consider the services they have given to development and now to the globalization of capitalism. Furthermore, human rights discourse must be adapted to the needs of those who are suffering from the imbalances of globalization and to convert it into an emancipatory one. The corollory of this reflection is the essential contextualization of the contents of human rights and the conditions under which they are exercised, for which social rights, and still with the help of nation-states, are indispensible. The work ends with an example of the contextualization of human rights discourse, namely that of consumers.