Agency Continuum? A Non-Binary Approach to Agency Among Human Rights Victims and Violators

Agency is central to the human rights enterprise. However, the conventional human rights account implies perpetrators of rights violations have agency while victims do not. This article instead argues agency within rights violations is more accurately conceptualized as a continuum containing both parties. This argument is illustrated through twenty-four matched-pair interviews with perpetrators and victims/survivors of bonded labor in India. Subsequent analysis finds support for a three-fold approach to agency: (1) the simple ability to cause effects (conditional agency), (2) biological needs, cultural needs, or economic needs (need-based agency), and (3) agency that fulfils other’s objectives (delegated agency).