The refugee regime and its weaknesses. Prospects for human rights and Kant’s ethic

• Authors: Josef Koudelka
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

When governments create refugee policies they consider several factors (security, economics, ethics, etc.). There are reasons why admitting refugees could have negative consequences (for example, security risks). On the other hand, if the recipient societies have ideals that stress the importance of helping other people, they should act according to their values. The aim of this article is to examine the concept of human dignity and show that European states should admit and help refugees because it is in accordance with their ethical values and the international agreements they have signed. This is important because when European countries hesitate to help refugees, they act not only contrary to their humane tradition, but they can harm them. The western concept of human dignity is one of the main values that stresses that each person is important-that they are equal and free.

Keywords

EN

refugees; European Union; human dignity; liberalism; Kant; human rights

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 356-370

Dates

published

2016-09-01

online

2016-07-25

Contributors

author

Josef Koudelka

• Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Joštova 10, 60001 Brno, Czech Republic

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/humaff-2016-0030