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 we have arrived here? And where are human rights going? Human Rights in an Advancing Civilization examines these questions and makes four claims: * that our understanding of human rights is based on our view of human nature and identity, * that communities and societies change, and ideas about identity and rights change with them, * that human rights have been applied more broadly over time as our sense of community has expanded, * and that human rights support the exploration and fulfillment of identity by protecting human potential.