2.1 Critics on Generations of Human Rights

The three generations frame (Karel Vasak's name — the French Revolution's trilogy): firstgeneration — civil and political rights (liberty); second generation — economic, social and cultural rights (equality); third generation — solidarity rights (development, environment, peace, self-determination). The critics (the exam's balance): (1) the generations imply a hierarchy — the "progressive realization" excuse for the second, the "aspirational" dismissal of the third — against the indivisibility doctrine (Vienna 1993: all rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated); (2) the chronology is Eurocentric — other traditions ordered rights differently; (3) the "generation" metaphor suggests the earlier ones are finished — but the first generation's enforcement remains the weakest link; (4) the classification still organises the UN system itself (the two Covenants' split — the ICCPR's immediate duties vs the ICESCR's progressive realization) — the exam's honest conclusion: use the map, refuse the hierarchy.