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This isn't human rights' finest hour, Massey Lecturer Alex Neve says — but it could be
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To Alex Neve, the core promise behind human rights is that they are applied universally: to everyone, everywhere, at all times, without exception.
But in this year's Massey Lectures, he argues that while universality is the noblest promise we can afford our fellow human beings, it's also the area where we have most gravely failed.
"I think everyone would acknowledge and recognize we live in a world where human rights are not at all delivered and enjoyed universally. So it gives us a chance to explore what the promise is all about, but also where we have come up so terribly short," Neve told IDEAS' Tom Howell.
Neve is a human rights lawyer and served as Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada from 2000 to 2020. His Massey Lectures, titled Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World, follows in the tradition of lecturers that includes Tanya Talaga, Margart Atwood and Martin Luther King Jr. The lectures will also be released as a book, published by House of Anansi Press, in September.
The five-part series will also mark the 60th anniversary of CBC Radio's IDEAS, which first aired on Oct. 25, 1965.
While the idea of human rights can be traced back thousands of years, Neve argues our modern understanding of it goes back to the establishment of the United Nations in the aftermath of the Second World War and the Holocaust. In 1948, the U.N. adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which asserted "the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family" to be the foundation of freedom, justice and peace on the planet.
WATCH | Alex Neve on the core promise behind human rights
Human rights need to be universal, says 2025 Massey Lecturer Alex Neve
8 minutes ago
Duration 12:05
The core promise behind human rights is that they are applied universally, says lawyer Alex Neve. Unfortunately, he argues, we are failing. In his series of Massey Lectures to be delivered this fall, Neve will look at the history of human rights, and explore why he believes we could still achieve our finest hour.
Neve says that document wasn't borne out of naivete. "Much like today, those were desperately challenging, violent, divided times in our world," he said.
"The leaders who came together then knew that the way forward wasn't about more armies and greater divisions and isolation, it was about embracing this notion of universality."
Universality's finest hour?
In his lectures, Neve says that the current moment isn't universality's finest hour, but it could be. He admits that notion could be a tough sell to anyone who's read the news lately.
The promise of universality, he argues, is broken when the powerful elites decide that human rights are more like a club, where membership is conditional, and rights can be given as a reward or taken away as a punishment.
"We see the climate crisis just continuing to march forward without end, unrelentingly. That's a human rights situation. We see the rise of mass atrocities, including situations of genocide, in more and more corners of our world — and from the level of the United Nations down, seeming paralysis to do anything about it."
Specifically he mentions "absolutely horrific human rights violations and genocide" in Gaza, calling it "the most fundamental decimation of what the universal human rights promise is all about," and "the rise of hate, including in the White House."
Despite these profound challenges and failures, Neve notes that the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court have cited the Universal Declaration of Human Rights more recently "with passion and certainty and conviction and determination."
He is encouraged by the fervour with which some have spoken out against modern-day injustices and atrocities — but mused that perhaps it takes humanity being dragged to "a very low and forboding place" to fully embrace universality.
"If we live in a world where universal human rights are being denied anyone, then really they're being denied to all of us. And that's why it matters."
Excited to deliver lectures across the nation
Neve will deliver his lectures in five cities across Canada. Tickets will be available in July.
Lecture 1: Sept. 19, Koerner Hall, Toronto.
Lecture 2: Sept. 25, York Theatre, Vancouver.
Lecture 3: Oct. 1, Horowitz Centre, Edmonton.
Lecture 4: Oct. 15, Lawrence O'Brien Centre, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L.
Lecture 5: Oct. 30, Babs Asper Theatre, Ottawa.
Neve told Howell he's also excited because the print release of the lectures means it will be the first book release, for someone who's written many reports, and contributed writing and editing for other books.
"It's a really interesting process to go through because ... you're doing two things. Obviously, you're thinking about writing a book and the printed page and the words. Are they going to flow off the page and have the impact you want them to? But you're also thinking about the lecture and kind of doing both at the same time," he said.
"And I found that a really wonderful way to go about writing, where you're thinking about different kinds of audiences at the time."
