Moral-normative Justification of Human Rights

This paper presents and analyzes the moral-normative sources of human rights. In this article, we analyze the philosophical sources of human rights that relate to the question of why human beings should be holders of human rights, regardless of whether specific legal claims can be derived from them at the legal level. The paper addresses three main normative sources of human rights: (a) secular claims of human dignity; (b) claims based on human needs and human nature; and (c) transcendental claims. The article points out the limitations of these philosophical resources and suggests why it may be suitable to accept human rights based on a pluralistic notion of human nature.