Seyla Benhabib in the context of universal human rights and cultural relativism

The debate about the definition of "human" in the context of universal human rights and cultural relativism also necessitates to address to the conceptions of "universality" and "culture". The main reason behind such a motivation is to determine universality of human rights. Universality of human rights is challenged by the claims of cultural relativism. Such a challenge leaves us with two alternatives: Either human rights is justified with transcendentally in the boundaries of speculative theoretical reason or accommodated into the cultural relativism. This study would like to display another possibility via Seyla Benhabib's contribution to the field of human rights theory by her emphasis upon democratic dimension. The very objective of the study is to analyze Benhabib's thought which suggests new approach to the theory of human rights on the basis of democracy. When viewed from that aspect, the justification of the universality of human rights on the tension between human rights and cultural relativism stresses out the necessity of thinking together with democracy.