The civilizing project of human rights in the context of the democratic problems of the Global South

Abstract

Human rights are not limited to being a legal and ethical-axiological system with a claim to universality; they also signify a civilizing project that seeks to dignify the human condition and, by extension, other forms of higher life. Under this premise, the objective of the research was to interpret the ethical, juridical, political and ideological meanings of the civilizing project of human rights, in the light of the democratic problems that identify the societies of the global south in the 21st century. From this objective arose questions such as: To what extent can the civilizing project of human rights reconcile its universalist pretension with the cultural and epistemic diversity of the Global South? Methodologically, Gadamer's hermeneutics and documentary research techniques were employed. It is concluded that, in philosophical terms, the civilizing project of human rights will only be viable if it is reconfigured as a platform of intercultural translation, where concrete universals emerge from shared struggles against dispossession. This requires abandoning Western salvationist rhetoric and assuming that dignity is built in the daily trenches of the realities of the South, where communities resist multiple forms of material and symbolic extermination.