The international human rights system is both the process and the product of an ongoing dialogue between peoples and cultures throughout the world. But what do human rights mean today? How have we arrived here? And where are human rights going?

Human Rights in an Advancing Civilisation examines these questions and makes four claims:

• that human rights have been applied more broadly over time as our sense of community has expanded
• that communities and societies change, and ideas about identity and rights change with them
• that our understanding of human rights is based on our view of human nature
• and human rights support the exploration and fulfilment of identity by protecting human potential and purpose.