Abstract
In this chapter, we confront the critique directed at the universality and relativity of human rights as allegedly imposed by Western modernist thought. We present various viewpoints about the universality and nature of human rights as well as criticism and objections coming from a relativist perspective. In the discussion on the purported Western roots of human rights, we also speak up and offer arguments in favor of non-Western viewpoints on their genesis. Pluriversal values in the decolonization of social work may yet offer a position that can transcend the limits of universal or relative perspectives on human rights.
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Boryczko, M., Leung, J.M., Madew, M. (2023). Relativism, Universalism, and Pluriversality in Human Rights. In: Madew, M., Boryczko, M., Lusk, M. (eds) Decolonized Approaches to Human Rights and Social Work. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33030-8_2
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