The purpose of my contribution is to provide a general overview of the issue at stake when today over the world people debate human rights. In order to do so I will rely on and both differentiate and associate philosophical, anthropological, ethnological, historical, sociological, political, and psychological approaches. Let me stress that this is not at all to contribute to a muddled understanding of the issue of human rights that necessarily has to be perceived differently depending on the field of research. On the contrary, it is in fact to articulate that the issue of human rights can only be understood from a transdisciplinary perspective; and that cross-cultural communication is required to approach the question of ‘values’ and ‘rights’ in our globalized world.