This book argues that human rights cannot go global without going local. This important lesson from the winding debates on universalism and particularism raises intricate questions: what are human rights after all, given the dissent surrounding their foundations, content, and scope? What are legitimate deviances from classical human rights (law) and where should we draw “red lines”?

Making a case for balancing conceptual openness and distinctness, this book addresses the key human rights issues of our time and opens up novel spaces for deliberation. It engages philosophical reasoning with law, politics, and religion and demonstrates that a meaningful relativist account of human rights is not only possible, but a sorely needed antidote to dogmatism and polarization.

Marie-Luisa Frick, born 1983 in Lienz in Austria, works as Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. She has published extensively on human rights, legal, and moral philosophy. A visiting fellow at the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, USA, in 2016, she is also engaged in cultural diplomacy and upon invitation of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contributed to bilateral religious dialogues with Indonesia, Iran, and China.