Discussion Questions for
Jack Donnelly's
Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice

1. On the first page of the Introduction Donnelly explains four senses of the term “universal” in the claim that human rights are “universal.” Please summarize what you understand each of those four meanings to be.
   
   
2. On pp 7-8 Donelly outlines two meanings of the term “right” in English: rectitude and entitlement. Explain what you understand each to mean, and how the two meanings differ from each other.
   
   
3. On pp 8-10 Donnelly makes important distinctions between what it means to have, to assert, to respect and to enjoy a right.
   a. Explain what he says it means to “have” a right.
   b. Explain what he says it means to “assert,” or “press” or “claim” a right.
   c. Explain what he says it means to “respect” a right.
   d. Explain what he says it means to “enjoy” a right.
   
   
4. On p 9, second paragraph from the bottom, Donnelly explains what he terms the “possession paradox.” Please describe in your own words what you understand the possession paradox to be.
   
   
5. On p 30 Donnelly refers to a distinction commonly made between positive rights and negative rights. Explain what you understand that distinction to be, and what some of the rights in each class are.
   
   
6. On p 32 Donnelly refers to a distinction commonly made between two classes of rights, a) civil and political rights and b) social, economic and cultural rights. Explain what you understand that distinction to be, and what some of the rights in each class are.
   
   
7. On p 35 Donnelly writes: “the modern state has emerged as both the principal threat to the enjoyment of human rights and the essential institution for their effective implementation and enforcement. Although human righs advocates have generally had an adversarial relationship with states, both sides of this relationship between the state and human rights require emphasis.”
   
   Explain what you understand Donnelly to mean by those sentences.
   
   
8. On p 35 Donnelly writes: “Nonetheless, a state that does no active harm itself is not enough. The state must also include protecting individuals against abuses by other individuals and private groups. The ‘classic’ right to personal security, for example, is about safety against physical assaults by private actors, not just attacks by agents of the state. The state, although needing to be tamed, is in the contemporary world the principal institution we rely on to tame social forces no less dangerous to the rights, interests, and dignity of individuals, families, and communities.”
   
   Explain what you understand Donnelly to mean by those sentences. Do you see any implications there about the state’s duty to adequately regulate activities of corporations?
   
   
9. Imagine that you have been assigned to give a 12 minute speech about human rights to fellow students in your Intro to Speech course, and that the speech should be based on ideas in the first 37pp of Donnelly’s Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice. You’ll have time to explain only four main ideas in your speech.
   
   You don’t need to actually write this speech. Just decide which four ideas from the reading you would choose to emphasize in your speech. Then for each of the four ideas you choose please
   a. quote a short passage that expresses what that idea is;
   b. briefly explain what you understand that quoted passage to mean;
   c. explain why this idea seemed important enough to you that you chose it as one of the main ideas in your speech.