Hybrid human rights

Hybridity is a useful analytical tool for understanding international human rights law and specifically Third Generation Rights. Throughout this chapter, I develop and apply a framework for understanding the role hybridity plays within the international arena. The framework consists of three interconnected elements. Firstly, hybridity is a theory that enables understanding of identities, providing a lens through which cultures may be viewed. Hybridity, or hybridisation, is also a process through which identities and cultures are forged, with a ‘multiplicity of outcomes’ that depend on ‘complex and context-specific realities’. Those processes take place at local, national, regional and international levels. Lastly, hybridity is an entity in terms of the hybrid constructs that emerge based on the theory and resulting from the process. Applying this framework to the development of international human rights law, I explore how hybridity operates within and impacts upon the international arena.