The Divisibility of Indivisible Human Rights

The human rights community characterizes the relationships among the various human rights enumerated in the major international human rights instruments as indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. This working paper raises issues on intellectual and operational grounds as to whether all human rights can be considered to be indivisible. Instead it proposes that there is a need to set priorities for implementation within and among human rights. The article then evaluates various options for developing priorities.