The chapter explores the possibility of establishing a regional human rights regime in South Asia. Commencing with an examination of the literature on regimes from the vantage points of Structural Realists, Neoliberal Institutionalists and Critical Constructivists, Mallavarapu demonstrates that each of these accounts result in distinct pictures and assessments of the guiding motivations of a universal human rights regime. However, more crucially premised on field work in Sri Lanka, Mallavarapu details the texture of human rights discourse in the island state and its ambivalence vis-à-vis the universal human rights framing. From the perspective of critical Sri Lankan commentators, there remains general scepticism about the possibility of a regional human rights regime in South Asia on account of concerns about political timing, reconciliation of diverse cultural repertoires in the region, anxieties about the overall Indian footprint and trepidation about a further watering down of existing international legal obligations as pertains to human rights as an issue-area. © Oxford University Press 2011. All rights reserved.