MAGDALENA
SMIESZEK

Title of contribution:

Human Consciousness and the Integral Evolution of Human Rights

Where & when:

Play Room

Sunday, 27th May
11:30-13:30

Project: Human Consciousness and the Integral Evolution of Human Rights

The evolution of human rights is fundamentally linked to the evolution of human consciousness, responding to the perennial questions of what it means to be human. However, generations of theorists have grappled with the origins of human rights that would provide a foundational theory. This holy grail of human rights theory must be holistic, universal, cross-cultural, focused on the individual and collective, timeless, and adaptable. Integral theory could be the answer by providing a conceptual map for unifying the multiple sources of knowledge for the long-sought foundation for human rights. The presentation will outline the content of Wilber’s quadrants that could satisfy an integral theory of human rights, with multiple insights from evolutionary and social psychology, the natural sciences, as well as the religious, philosophical, historical, and political sources. More coherence about how human rights evolve is of vital significance for contemporary and future politics.

About Magdaléna Smieszek:

Magdalena Smieszek is a human rights specialist, and currently Visiting Professor at Al Quds Bard College for Arts and Sciences in East Jerusalem. Prior to her current doctoral research and teaching at the Central European University in Budapest, she spent many years doing humanitarian work around the world with various organizations, including about a decade with the United Nations. She also earned degrees focused on international human rights from universities in Oxford, Calgary, and Windsor.