The issue of human rights continues to be a battleground between divergent beliefs. Currently, it does not seem to be a unifying idea, but a cause of division that may strengthen the “clash of civilizations” or the “war of cultures”. This article stresses that the universality of human rights could only be sustained by stating the organic relation of human rights with some general facts that characterize human nature and explain why moral indignation is so common and negative reactions so widely spread when gross violations of human rights occur. This relationship can be shown by incorporating into the doctrine of human rights a general notion of “capabilities” and functioning of every “human being” and every “form of human life” as that one expressed in the texts by Sen and in Nussbaum particularly.
