Conclusion

Abstract

In the preceding chapters, I have attempted an admittedly ambitious and difficult task, to provide a grounding for human rights that was committed to certain values without ascending into a universalistic idealism. I have tried to provide a grounding that was sensitive to history and context, indeed one that extracted the relevant values from historical struggles to overcome domination and advance the cause of human rights, without falling into a relativism that would be incompatible with the very concept of human rights and that would at best relegate human rights to a purely strategic or tactical device to be used in power struggles against political or economic regimes that were being opposed on other more self-serving grounds.