A New Human Rights-Based Theory of Historians’ Responsibilities

Previous theories of historians’ responsibilities have been based on organizing
principles such as their scope, addressees and performers, and the context of these responsibilities. In contrast, the theory presented here is based on human rights and uses the performative nature of responsibilities as its criterion, distinguishing responsibilities to respect, protect and promote. The theory argues, first of all, that the source of responsibilities is located in human rights: one has responsibilities because one has rights. It also discusses the differences between responsibilities, duties and virtues. It then specifies the basic responsibilities of states toward history and historians and the basic responsibilities of historians toward history and other historians. Finally, it examines the relative strength of the responsibilities to respect, protect and promote, arguing that the first is absolute while the other two are not. The new human-rights based theory of historians’ responsibilities presented here provides a foundation on which other responsibilities can be built.