Peace Forged by Warfare: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 70 Years After

Abstract

Abstract The 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in December 2018 created a need to problematise its precepts and their political consequences in contemporary times. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s genealogical approach to power, this article analyses the normative inscription of the UDHR as the emergence of a juridical-political device that produces new modulations of biopolitics. As such, it is not based on peace, as is commonly argued, but on the permanent reinscription of war, sometimes in dimensions that go beyond the boundaries of sovereignty.

Keywords

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• politics as warfare
• biopolitics
• re-inscription of war
• Foucauldian analyses.