Yale historian and law professor Samuel Moyn stoked an ongoing debate about the state of the human rights movement this spring with his new book, Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World. Moyn’s thesis: the modern human rights movement has seriously damaged its own effectiveness by failing to address growing economic inequality over the past four decades.
Aryeh Neier, president emeritus of the Open Society Foundations and a former executive director of Human Rights Watch, disagrees. He argues that inherently complex decisions around how society allocates resources require the democratic process. In his view, social justice lies fundamentally outside the human rights framework and is badly served by appealing to it.
Can human rights flourish in conditions of increasing economic disenfranchisement, and is the human rights movement equipped with the proper tools to address structural inequality? In this live-streamed event, Samuel Moyn and Aryeh Neier will tackle these thorny questions and more in what promises to be a powerful discussion about the past and future direction of the human rights movement.
Speakers
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Aryeh Neier
President Emeritus
Aryeh Neier is president emeritus of the Open Society Foundations. He is a founder and former executive director of Human Rights Watch.
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Samuel Moyn
Speaker
Samuel Moyn is a professor of law at Yale Law School and a professor of history at Yale University. He is the author of numerous books, including Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World.
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Laura Silber
Moderator
Laura Silber is chief communications officer for the Open Society Foundations.
Read more
Event Recap
The Debate on the Human Rights Movement’s Response to Economic Equality
Samuel Moyn and Aryeh Neier take opposing sides on the question of whether human rights can flourish under conditions of increasing economic disenfranchisement.
Voices
Putting Human Rights First
Promoting human rights has been a key element of U.S. foreign policy for generations. Abandoning this commitment would not only be a rejection of American values, but also counterproductive to U.S. interests.
Strengthening Human Rights
75 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Global Director of Advocacy Natalie Samarasinghe reflects on its importance amid current global crises.