Civil society organisations in India and construction of multiplicity of human rights

Human rights discourse has increasingly been adopted by social movements and civil society organisations (CSOs) around the world and especially in the global south. At the same time, the same discourse has generated enormous negative and critical assessments from different scholars and disciplines who consider human rights as Eurocentric, exclusionary and against the people of the global south. However, these two trends remain contradictory. By presenting original research on the multidimensionality of human rights practice by CSOs in New Delhi, this article considers both notions of 'human' and 'rights' as empty signifiers. Hence, recognition of their nominal status becomes central to our understanding of the adoption of human rights by social movements and CSOs.