Beyond shields, swords and fatigue: Liberal penality and the right-wing recasting of human rights

This article examines how right-wing populist actors reshape human rights claims to evade accountability and legitimize increasingly punitive policies. Departing from conventional debates on liberal penality and human rights – which often cast rights as limits on punishment, drivers of criminalization or ‘fatigued’ norms – it analyzes how rights-based language is strategically redeployed within contemporary penal politics. Drawing on theoretical insights and two case studies, the article illustrates how appeals to freedom of expression are mobilized to shield ‘othering’ speech, and how LGBTQ+ rights are co-opted through homonationalist logics to target racialized and migrant communities. These tactics recast human rights as a vehicle for punitive governance under the guise of liberal values. By interrogating these dynamics, the article extends debates on the intersections between right-wing populism, punishment, human rights, and liberal legal orders, demonstrating the vulnerability of human rights to instrumentalization within exclusionary and coercive political projects.