UNAIR Faculty of Law held another public lecture on Monday afternoon (21/11/2022) to discuss international human rights law. Two foreign professors were presented to give the speech simultaneously. The first speaker was Prof. Jorge Freddy Milian Gomez from Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas, Cuba. The second speaker is Prof. Jose Gabriel Luis Cordova from Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium.
Prof. Gomez said that the development of human rights values can be traced from international legal theories. Take an example is the historical theory, where the emergence of slavery, feudalism, and capitalism gave rise to criticism because the practices were very inhumane. This criticism rests on the fact that all human beings have dignity, which has become one of the foundations for developing human rights.
“There is also a theory of positivism that asserts that human rights are born because they are regulated explicitly in positive law. There is also a theory of natural law that emphasizes human nature obeying natural law as a source of morality. In this natural law theory, universal values based on dignity become a source of morals, which then become human rights values,” said the Business Law expert.
The second speaker, Prof. Cordova, emphasized that human rights values are not standard. Instead, it can develop over time. He added that no rational reason could limit human rights from creating and renewing themselves. This is because human rights must be used as a source of law.
“Law cannot be used as a source of human rights. Instead law must be sourced from human rights values. The perspective of making law a source of human rights can narrow down the essence of human rights values themselves, namely humanity and human dignity (human dignity). Therefore, the value of human rights will always be dynamic,” said the legal academic.
