Personal Safety and Human Rights: Contributions to a Debate from the Argentinean Context

• Published in: Espacio abierto Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 487 - 512
• Main Author: Ferreira, Lucia Cid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: 01.07.2007
• Subjects: Argentina; Concepts; Crime; Debate; Human Rights; Safety
• ISSN: 1315-0006

Based on an observation of varied demands for safety & justice as a reaction to criminal violence & the permanent controversy between safety & human rights, this article proposes to: (1) analyze the concept of safety within the human rights discourse & (2) discuss the demand for safety within the human rights concept developed by Herrera Flores (1989), which considers the dialectic interaction between human activity, needs & values. Agnes Heller states that radical needs are "all those that are born in the capitalist society as a consequence of the development of civil society (interference of democratic logic with capitalist logic), but that cannot be satisfied within the same [ . ] because they are factors of the superseding of capitalist society." Safety appears to fit the definition of a radical need to the degree that the capitalist society not only fails to satisfy this need, but also conspires against a person's safety. Safety therefore becomes a controversial human right when it goes against liberties & in favor of oppression. This article attempts to elucidate some aspects of this complex problem. References. Adapted from the source document.