In search of individual autonomy: human rights vs. rights socially acquired in Mozambique

Abstract

This paper questions the use of the notion of "human rights" as a description of what is inalienable and proper for the human being. It suggests a historical approach that translates "human rights" as a set of socially acquired rights in a way not only to deny that Europe can have the prerogative of universalizing its own historical experience but also to place local intelligibility at the center of the definition of the concept. To illustrate the contribution, it turns the attention to Mozambique and shows how the search for individual autonomy constitutes the starting point for a local definition of "human rights".