Who do Human Rights work for? Criticism of the international human rights system from an intersectional perspective

Abstract

This article pursues to review different critics, both theoretical and practical, towards the international human rights system from an intersectional perspective, considering gender, racial and non western approaches. Many aspects and stages of human rights will be analyzed, showing that while there are current issues regarding human rights as a practical project, there also are many inherent issues regarding its narrative itself. This will be illustrated by revising some particular cases in which international agencies that are part of the international human rights system have acted against what human rights, in theory, promote. It is concluded that it is strictly necessary to reevaluate the grounds of the international human rights system as a whole, otherwise human rights will keep availing and legitimizing the status quo, not helping the ones who need them the most, because current world issues are a logical consequence of the way the system was (and is) structured.