Instituting praxis of liberation and historicization of human rights

Abstract

In this article, it will be shown how Ignacio Ellacuría’s thought contributes to an understanding, from Latin America, of the category of “the common”, which has developed in a sector of left-wing thinking. This in connection with the historicization of human rights and the understanding of the historical praxis of liberation. From the category of “instituting praxis” as the generator of the common, two aspects of analysis are opened. On the one hand, to show that instituting praxis is a historical praxis and must be generated by a subject to become a praxis of liberation. That is, not all historical praxis is liberating, and in the same way, not all instituting praxis is liberating; there may be practices of oppression, destroying the capacities and possibilities of a certain sector of humanity. Thus, praxis is required to transform historical reality into moments of greater enjoyment of freedom, and of the expansion of the system of possibilities and capacities. On the other hand, it is about discussing the way in which, from Ellacuría’s thought, human rights can be constituted as a “common”, starting from assuming them from the complexity of historical reality through the method of historicization.

ECA Estudios Centroamericanos, Vol. 76, No. 764, 2021: 47-74.