The Valladolid Debate

In Jose Manuel-Barreto’s introduction to Decolonial Strategies and Dialogue in the Human Rights Field he starts off by comparing and citing the first European advocate for human rights in the Americas, the Spanish friar Bartolome de las Casas’s and his Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. De Las Casas, who would later be bestowed the title “Protector of the Indians” advocated that the “heathen” inhabitants of the New World were in all regards human. In a debate that ensued in Valladolid, later dubbed the Valladolid Debate the case was made for their humanity. Manuel-Barreto compares the images that lie within the account with those of fellow Colombian artist Fernando Botero. Botero’s images depict prisoners being abused by guards
On page 6 he goes on to state “ There is a link between human rights and Europe, so it is biased, but it presents itself as objective, it condemns the third world to impossibility or silence, hiding critical aspects of their genealogy, the extortion of the new world. This quote reminded me of a Che Guevera quote that states “As long as imperialism exists, it will, by definition, exert its domination over other countries. Today that domination is called neocolonialism. Because imperialism in its very essence is what transforms men into beasts.” On page 7 the body of work under Re-Contextualization of and Contextualization of Human rights beautifully states how knowledge can become subjective and essentially become propaganda, I think it is one of the more important parts of the entire reading. On page 13 in the section titled Deparochializing Legal theory and the Quest for Cosmopolitan Jurisprudence Manuel-Barreto mentions the philosopher Immanuel Kant who was best known for his “categorical imperative” and the secularization of