Karel Vasak’s Generations of Rights and the Contemporary Human Rights Discourse Spasimir Domaradzki 1 & Margaryta Khvostova 1 & David Pupovac 1 # The Author(s) 2019 Abstract In the late 1970s, when Karel Vasak offered his concept of the three genera- tions of rights, it was inclusive enough to embrace the whole spectrum of existing human rights. Forty years later, this paper explores the nature of contemporary human rights discourse and questions to what extent Vasak’ s categorization is still relevant. Our work discusses the evolution of the concept of human rights, the changing dichotomies of national and international, indi- vidual and collective, and positive and negative rights. This paper uses quali- tative methods of content analysis and quantitative frequency analysis method to explore the nature of scholarly discourse presented in human rights journals. Our research findings highlight the dynamic evolution of contemporary human rights discourse. The paper specifically illustrates the increasing emphasis on collective and internationalist rights and the enhancement of human rights matters that are difficult to categorize using Vasak’ s approach. In doing so, the paper calls for the clarification of the language of contemporary human rights. Keywords KarelVasak . Generations ofhuman rights . Individualrights . Collectiverights . Group rights, human rights categorization Introduction It’ s been over four decades since Karel Vašák has introduced the three generations of rights. Although subject to severe criticism since the outset, his division of rights into generations has offered scholars, activists, and pundits a useful tool to https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-019-00565-x * Margaryta Khvostova m.khvostova@lazarski.edu.pl 1 Lazarski University, Swieradowska 43, 02-662 Warsaw, Poland Human Rights Review (2019) 20:423–443 Published online: 6 2019 September