Human Rights and the Body

This study brings research in linguistics and the way in which the body is written upon to bear on discourse on human rights and the body. Drawing on legal concepts and aspects of the law of human rights, the study argues that the proper frames for human rights are firstly the human body, seen as an index reliant on the natural world, secondly the globe and finally, language. These three frames generate rights to food, water, sleep and shelter, environmental protection and a right against dehumanization.