(Un)orthodoxy of the Human Rights in Yugoslavia: Genealogy and Contestations

This chapter looks at the contested genealogy of human rights in socialist Yugoslavia through the lens of Marxist humanism. Drawing on personalism, existentialism, and early Marxist texts, Praxis philosophers redefined humanism as central to socialism but eventually moved away from Marxist frameworks. The chapter shows the contrasting views on human rights and humanism in Yugoslavia. While the Party acknowledged the importance of the human being for Marxist theory and practice in its version of socialist self-management, intellectuals around the journal Praxis pushed for a more radical human-centered approach that placed the individual as a starting point of all political and economic matters.