Call for Papers: Decolonizing Human Rights: Where Universalism Ends and Cultural Relativism Begins, 2 April 2026
We invite students, early-career researchers, scholars, practitioners, activists, and individuals with relevant lived or professional experience to submit papers for the online workshop and conference “Decolonizing Human Rights: Where Universalism Ends and Cultural Relativism Begins,” organized by The Research Bridge and taking place on 2 April 2026.
Submissions are welcome from researchers based in all regions. However, we particularly encourage contributions from scholars and practitioners based in the Global South and Eastern Europe, whose perspectives remain underrepresented in many academic and policy discussions on international human rights frameworks.
The workshop aims to critically examine the colonial legacies embedded within international human rights law and governance, as well as the tensions that emerge when universal legal norms interact with diverse cultural, political, and social realities. Although human rights have been framed as a universal moral and legal framework, their historical development has been closely intertwined with Western epistemologies, legal traditions, and institutional structures. As a result, in many contexts human rights norms operate not only as mechanisms of protection but also as forms of governance that may inadequately reflect local knowledge systems, communal practices, or alternative understandings of justice and social order.
The organizers encourage interdisciplinary submissions from fields such as law, political science, sociology, anthropology, history, gender studies, and related disciplines. We also welcome contributions from practitioners and activists working in the fields of human rights advocacy, community organizing, or social justice.
Submission Process and Timeline
Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract of approximately 300 words outlining their proposed contribution by 27 March 2026. Abstracts should be sent via email to: caty.nistor@researchbridge.org Authors whose abstracts are accepted will be asked to prepare short visual presentation materials (PowerPoint slides) for the workshop by 1 April 2026. If participants require assistance preparing visual materials, they may indicate this when submitting their abstract.
For more details, refer here
