rights, or might not even undermine the whole democratIc
edifice. We cannot leave matters there. All these questIOns concern
only the formation and the transformations of Western societies. No
one can be unaware of the fact that over the great part of our planet,
the idea of human rights is either unknown - because it is incompatible
with communal traditions which in some cases date from tIme
immemorial - or is furiously denied