Full Idea
The force of a claim for a human right would indeed be seriously undermined if it were possible to show that it is unlikely to survive open public scrutiny.
Gist of Idea
A human right is not plausible if public scrutiny might reject it
Source
Amartya Sen (The Idea of Justice [2009], 17 'Scrutiny')
A Reaction
This is a public aspect of Scanlon's 'contractualist' approach to ethics. You can hardly disagree with the idea, though anti-racist legislation in a strongly racist society might be a good test case.
Book Reference
Sen, Amartya: 'The Idea of Justice' [Penguin 2010], p.387
Related Idea
Idea 20992 Right and wrong concerns what other people cannot reasonably reject [Scanlon]