[D66] Beyond Human Rights

[R.O.]

https://novact.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Beyond-Human-Rights-by-Giorgio-Agamben.pdf

"It is time to cease to look at all the dec-
larations of rights from 1789 to the
present day as proclamations of eternal
metajuridical values aimed at binding
the legislator to the respect of such
values; it is time, rather, to understand
them according to their real function
in the modern state. Human rights, in
fact, represent first of all the originary
figure for the inscription of natural
naked life in the political-juridical
order of the nation-state. Naked life
(the human being), which in antiquity
belonged to God and in the classical
world was clearly distinct (as zoe) from
political life (bios), comes to the fore-
front in the management of the state
and becomes, so to speak, its earthly
foundation. Nation-state means a state
that makes nativity or birth [nascita]
(that is, naked human life) the founda-
tion of its own sovereignty. This is the
meaning (and it is not even a hidden
one) of the first three articles of the
1789 Declaration: it is only because
this declaration inscribed (in articles
1 and 2) the native element in the
heart of any political organization that
it can firmly bind (in article 3) the
principle of sovereignty to the nation
(in conformity with its etymon, native
[natío] originally meant simply ‘birth’
[nascita]. The fiction that is implicit
here is that birth [ nascita] comes
into being immediately as nation, so
that there may not be any difference
between the two moments. Rights,
in other words, are attributed to the
human being only to the degree to
which he or she is the immediately van-
ishing presupposition (and, in fact, the
presupposition that must never come to
light as such) of the citizen."