The Decline, but not Demise, of Multiculturalism

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 763-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amnon Rubinstein
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Public Places ◽  
American Law ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Individual

This article discusses the decline of the multicultural doctrine that has governed Western political philosophy and practice in the last part of the 20thcentury. This decline is felt in the USA as well as in EU countries and manifests itself in new cultural restrictions on immigration policy, in stricter loyalty tests for immigrants who seek naturalization and in statutes regulating behavior in public places (such as the anti-veil acts in Europe) and proscribing deviant acts based on religious tradition (such as the American law criminalizing female genital circumcision). This decline is also accompanied by rethinking the theoretical foundations of the multicultural approach. This rethinking was accelerated by the onset of the Islamist—as distinct from Moslem—crisis, but started before the 9/11 events.The article surveys the state of multiculturalism in a number of Western countries and pays special attention to the cases of the USA, Britain, France, and the Netherlands. The case of Israel is discussed separately because of its unique features as a society plagued by a national conflict. In all these countries the principal issue is how to tolerate intolerant communities, how to treat religious communities whose tenets clash with the democratic and liberal values of the host country and how to balance the rights of the individual against the rights of the cultural group to which that individual belongs.The author challenges the notion that all cultures are entitled to equal treatment and excludes from this ambit cultures that clash with the values of democracy and human rights. The author denies the notion that consent of the sufferer validates such cultural practices and demonstrates this by referring to the former Hindu practice of Seti—burning a widow alive, with her consent. Such consent is irrevocable and is always subject that it was given under social and cultural duress.The main brunt of this article is that the norms of democracy, equality, and human rights are not a culture in the ordinary sense of the word, as they are distinct from all traditional cultures and are the result of an intellectual construct founded upon the autonomy of the individual and on a rejection of traditional culture. This is the reason why these liberal norms should supersede any custom, even when based on cultural tradition, when there is a clash between the two. When there is no such clash, a compromise solution ought to be reached resorting to traditional judicial means of balancing contradictory values.

The Intervention of American Law in Jewish Divorce: A Pluralist Analysis

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Last Stone
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
State Action ◽  
Cultural Autonomy ◽  
Private Realm ◽  
Religious Law ◽  
American Law ◽  
Joseph Raz ◽  
Gender Based

The tension between the norms of gender equality and religious freedom is a major focus of international human rights debate. States that adopt religious law contend that gender discriminatory religious practices are protected under international law guaranteeing rights of cultural autonomy and religious freedom. Others argue that only discriminatory practices that are not the product of State action but, rather, take place in the private realm of civil society should be accorded such protection. Many women's rights activists, on the other hand, urge the State to actively reform religious law and restructure cultural practices even in the private realm, “not only as a means of ending gender-based restrictions on specific human rights but also as an essential step toward dismantling systematic gender inequality” perpetuated in traditionalist cultures. The larger philosophic issue underlying this debate, how to reconcile universal human rights and multiculturalism, understood as the primacy of group cultural identity as a morally and politically significant category, is complex, but not new. It is the age-old one, as Joseph Raz has put it, “of how to combine the truth of universalism with the truth in particularism.”

Taming the states: the American Law Institute and the ‘Statement of essential human rights’

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-482
Author(s):  
Hanne Hagtvedt Vik
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Great Depth ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Early Winter ◽  
World War ◽  
American Law ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Second World

AbstractAs the Second World War unfolded and became global, intellectuals of various backgrounds turned their minds to the problems of peace. Internal persecution bred external aggression, some believed. States had to be tamed. Such reasoning led the American Law Institute (ALI) to try to draft a globally acceptable bill of rights. Although originating in the USA, the project was essentially a transnational one. The ‘Statement of essential human rights’ became the most elaborate code created up to that point, in both scope and detail. Completed in the early winter of 1944, it was promoted by the Panamanian delegation to the 1945 San Francisco Conference, and used extensively by the UN Commission on Human Rights. Refuting suggestions that human rights originated in the 1970s, the ALI project reveals the great depth of the transnational conversation on human rights during the early 1940s, and even before.

The Freedoms of Religion and Culture under the South African Constitution: Do Traditional African Religions Enjoy Equal Treatment?

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jewel Amoah ◽  
Tom Bennett
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
African Culture ◽  
African Religions ◽  
The Sacrifice

On Sunday, January 20, 2007, Tony Yengeni, former Chief Whip of South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), celebrated his early release from a four-year prison sentence by slaughtering a bull at his father's house in the Cape Town township of Gugulethu. This time-honored African ritual was performed in order to appease the Yengeni family ancestors. Animal rights activists, however, decried the sacrifice as an act of unnecessary cruelty to the bull, and a public outcry ensued. Leading figures in government circles, including the Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan, entered the fray, calling for a proper understanding of African cultural practices. Jody Kollapen, the Chair of the Human Rights Commission, said: “the slaughter of animals by cultures in South Africa was an issue that needed to be dealt with in context. Cultural liberty is an important right. …”That the sacrifice was defended on the ground of African culture was to be expected. More surprising was the way in which everyone involved in the affair ignored what could have been regarded as an event of religious significance. Admittedly, it is far from easy to separate the concepts of religion and culture, and, in certain societies, notably those of pre-colonial Africa, this distinction was unknown. Today in South Africa, however, it is clearly necessary to make such a distinction for human rights litigation, partly because the Constitution specifies religion and culture as two separate rights and partly because it seems that those working under the influence of modern human rights seem to take religion more seriously than culture.

scholarly journals Majority rule and human rights: identity and non-identity in SAS v France

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-136
Author(s):  
Matthew Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Human Rights Practice ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
European Court ◽  
Political Function ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Identity Thinking

This article considers the July 2014 decision of the European Court of Human Rights in SAS v France in which the court upheld the legality of a ban on the wearing of the burqa and niqab in public places. Exploring the connection between SAS and a related trend of deference to the will of the national community in the court’s jurisprudence, it relies on Joseph Slaughter’s work to argue that the decision is best explained on the basis of what Theodor Adorno termed ‘identity thinking’ which, in a human rights context, involves the conceptualisation of human identity as something existing in and defined by the community rather than the individual. Drawing on the work of Franz Neumann, Otto Kirchheimer and Peter Mair, the article reflects on the social and political function of the ECtHR in the light of SAS and argues for an alignment between international human rights practice and the ‘non-identity thinking’ that Adorno advocated.

The Korean CIA in the USA

Worldview ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 19-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Ranard
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
South Korean Government ◽  
Illegal Activity ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Korean Government ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
American Law ◽  
The Usa

Korean intelligence agents operating in the United States have violated our laws with impunity. Such reprehensible actions merit serious scrutiny at any time. But in view of recent developments in Korea, it is even more urgent that our government be concerned about the intelligence activities of the South Korean Government in the United States.The hearings held earlier this year before the appropriate subcommittee of the House are important for at least two reasons. First, they sought, at long last, to inquire publicly into serious allegations of illegal activity carried on in our country by agents or persons representing a foreign power. The fact that Korea has been a close ally of the United States is not in dispute; what is of concern is whether representatives of that government have violated American law and have attempted to deny the human rights of Koreans resident in this country.

Tourism as a Tool for the Fulfilment of the Rights to Rest and Leisure Enshrined in Article No. 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 180-188
Author(s):  
Bianca Nicla Romano
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Title V ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Real Right ◽  
Right To Work ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Italian Constitution

Art. 24 of the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights recognises and protects the right of the individual to rest and leisure. This right has to be fully exercised without negative consequences on the right to work and the remuneration. Tourism can be considered one of the best ways of rest and leisure because it allows to enrich the personality of the individual. Even after the reform of the Title V this area is no longer covered by the Italian Constitution, the Italian legal system protects and guarantees it as a real right, so as to get to recognize its existence and the consequent compensation of the so-called “ruined holiday damage”. This kind of damage has not a patrimonial nature, but a moral one, and the Tourist-Traveler can claim for it when he has not been able to fully enjoy his holiday - the essential fulcrum of tourism - intended as an opportunity for leisure and/or rest, essential rights of the individual.

Involuntary Circumcision of Males in Illegal Initiation Schools in South Africa: A Violation of African Customary Human Rights?

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Porsche Makama
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Topical Issue ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Traditional Practice

The incidence of deaths associated with the practice of forced and botched circumcisions at initiation schools has become a topical issue in South Africa. In recent times, the number of deaths and injuries among initiates has risen at an alarming rate, most of them occurring at illegal initiation schools. The continuous rise in the number of injuries among initiates at these schools has elicited mixed reactions among community members, some referring to it as genocide in the case of fatalities and calling for its abandonment, while others argue that this traditional practice should be allowed to continue. The majority of young men who go to initiation schools do not make the decision on their own, nor do they have a choice in the matter. Instead they are compelled by parents or guardians, influenced by friends, and also coerced by others in the community who insist that they have to ‘go to the mountain’, as initiation schools are generally referred to in South Africa. It has been argued by those against circumcision that this practice infringes constitutional rights and contravenes the Children’s Act 38 of 2005. There have been numerous instances where young and even mature males have been taken from the streets, or even from the comfort of their homes, and forced into circumcision camps with or without their consent. This begs the question whether the continued practice of a cultural tradition that violates the fundamental human right and freedom to choose religious and cultural beliefs is justifiable.

Ummah’s Rights or Human Rights? Universalism, Individualism, and Islamic Ethics in the Twenty-first Century

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Luisa Frick
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Code ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Islamic Ethics ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Societal Needs ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

Against the background of the trend of Islamizing human rights on the one hand, as well as increasing skepticism about the compatibility of Islam and human rights on the other, I intend to analyze the potential of Islamic ethics to meet the requirements for vitalizing the idea of human rights. I will argue that the compatibility of Islam and human rights cannot be determined merely on the basis of comparing the specific content of the Islamic moral code(s) with the rights stipulated in the International Bill of Rights, but by scanning (different conceptions of) Islamic ethics for the two indispensable formal prerequisites of any human rights conception: the principle of universalism (i.e., normative equality) and individualism (i.e., the individual enjoyment of rights). In contrast to many contemporary (political) attempts to reconcile Islam and human rights due to urgent (global) societal needs, this contribution is solely committed to philosophical reasoning. Its guiding questions are “What are the conditions for deriving both universalism and individualism from Islamic ethics?” and “What axiological axioms have to be faded out or reorganized hierarchically in return?”

Music Downtown Eastside

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klisala Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Social Deprivation ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Urban Neighborhoods ◽  
Community Centers ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Downtown Eastside ◽  
Therapy Sessions

Music Downtown Eastside explores how human rights are at play in the popular music practices of homeless and street-involved people who feel that music is one of the rare things that cannot be taken away of them. It draws on two decades of ethnographic research in one of Canada’s poorest urban neighborhoods, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Klisala Harrison takes the reader into popular music jams and therapy sessions offered to the poorest of the poor in churches, community centers and health organizations. There she analyzes the capabilities music-making develops, and how human rights are respected, promoted, threatened, or violated in those musical moments. When doing so, she also offers new and detailed insights on the relationships between music and poverty, a type of social deprivation that diminishes people’s human capabilities and rights. The book contributes to the human rights literature by examining critically how human rights can be strengthened in cultural practices. Harrison’s study demonstrates that capabilities and human rights are interrelated. Developing capabilities can be a way to strengthen human rights.

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