"The Belgrade Circle was established as an intellectual forum to promote the establishment of a free, open, democratic and rational civil society around the world. In pursuit of such an aim this book sets out to describe the political and philosophical underpinnings of the idea of human rights by bringing together original contributions from a group of distinguished writers. Above all, it argues that the best way of promoting a universal concept of human rights is to demonstrate international solidarity with those many individuals around the world whose basic rights are jeopardized or denied."--Jacket.