Cultural Relativism and Human Rights: Reconsidering the Africanist Discourse

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonny Ibhawoh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Cultural Legitimacy ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Discussions about cultural relativism and the cross-cultural legitimacy of human rights have been central to contemporary human rights discourse. Much of this discussion has focussed on non-Western societies where scholars have advanced, from a variety of standpoints, arguments for and against the cultural relativism of human rights. Arguments for ‘Asian Values’ and lately, ‘African values’ in the construction of human rights have defined this debate. This paper reviews some of the major arguments and trends in the Africanist discourse on the cultural relativism of human rights. It argues the need to go beyond the polarities that have characterised the debate. It argues that while an Afrocentric conception of human rights is a valid worldview, it need not become the basis for the abrogation of the emerging Universal human rights regime. Rather, it should provide the philosophical foundation for the legitimisation of Universal human rights in the African context and inform the cross-fertilisation of ideas between Africa and the rest of the world.

Culture Re-introduced: Contestation of Human Rights in Contemporary Russia

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 173-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Preclik
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
National Identity Formation

AbstractThis article explores the current human-rights discourse in the Russian Federation through its relationship with the Council of Europe, the strongest human-rights regime that Russia has signed up for. Against the background of current international-relations theories, the article argues that human-rights scholarship should re-introduce the concept of culture into its research designs in order to be able to explain the interaction between cultural groupings and globally dominant discourses, such as human rights. The article further argues that human rights ought to be conceptualized as symbolic technologies and studied as discursive variables that enter the cycle of national-identity formation. To that end, I use the contestation thesis proposed by Andrei Tsygankov. The article concludes that Russia is currently actively securing itself against the dominant and universal human-rights discourse, which is perceived as hindering independent societal development in Russia. This state of securization is illustrated in the current debates within PACE on topics connected with human rights and Russia.

Libertŕ e diritti tra India ed Europa. Un approccio genealogico ai valori culturali

2009 ◽  
pp. 541-563
Author(s):  
Clelia Bartoli
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Sanskrit Text ◽  
Philosophical Literature ◽  
Bhagavad Gita ◽  
Interesting Idea ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Bhagavad Gītā ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

- This paper will deal with the issue of human rights and multiculturalism away from cultural relativism and universalism while taking inspiration from Nietzsche's Moral Genealogy. In particular, the concepts of karma, dharma and trivarga (an indian traditional form of particularism in the law) will be explained as they are expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most important texts of Indian philosophical literature. From this analysis it will emerge the impossibility of deducing the idea of human rights from the Sanskrit text. Not because the Bhagavad Gita adopts a communitarian conception of the self but because it entails a very complex and interesting idea of freedom which is little compatible with contemporary human rights discourse. Then, it will be quoted a criticism against the Bhagavad Gita based on the historical genealogy of cultural values, as it was formulated by B.R. Ambedkar - Chairman of the Drafting Committee of Indian Constitution. Finally, this writing will highlight some of the misunderstandings revolving around human rights and multiculturalism. This will be done while suggesting a genealogical approach where different intellectual and law traditions challenge and implement each other, rather than being locked in a sterile mutual respect.

Islamic Law and Human Rights

2015 ◽  
pp. 818-842
Author(s):  
Shannon Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
Second World

This article explores the question of whether Islamic law and universal human rights are compatible. It begins with an overview of human rights discourse after the Second World War before discussing Islamic human rights declarations and the claims of Muslim apologists regarding human rights, along with challenges to Muslim apologetics in human rights discourse. It then considers the issues of gender and gender equality, feminism, and freedom of religion in relation to human rights. It also examines four basic scholarly orientations to the topic of Islam and human rights since the end of the Second World War: a model that privileges a secular (non-religious) paradigm for rights; a Muslim apologist model, which privileges a purely “Islamic” conception of rights over secular models; a Marxist/postcolonial critique of rights as a western imposition of power; and a Muslim reformist paradigm of rights that highlights points of continuity between western legal and Muslim legal traditions.

scholarly journals Should a Human Right Discourse be Applied to Labour Standards?

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Morteza Shirzad
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Labour Rights ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Public Rights ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Whether a rights discourse should be applied to labour standards, entails addressing two issues. Firstly, what are the philosophical grounds for labour rights and whether they are human rights at all? Even if they cannot be regarded as human rights, should they be applied strategically? While, there is no single comprehensive theory identified to provide sufficient grounding for all labour rights, this paper argues, firstly, that labour rights certainly lack characteristics of universal human rights since they are time-bound and place-bound. Secondly, while recognising the relatively large strategic turn to human rights discourse by labour scholars and labour organisations, this paper argues that this is not a universally applicable strategy and in fact in some contexts application of human rights discourse is counterproductive. The paper, thus, concludes that not only deploying human rights approaches when it comes to countries authoritarian contexts are not effective, but also it is highly likely to be counterproductive, since human rights discourse needs public rights awareness public and authoritarian contexts lack this awareness.

Globalization and Human Rights

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Evans ◽  
Alex Kirkup
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Social Struggle ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship

The literature on the relationship between globalization and human rights has laid out three responses to the economic, political, and social transformations of globalization within the human rights. First, some scholars consider globalization as complementary to the progressive realization of universal human rights on a global scale. They cite the extension and deepening of the formal human rights regime through international institutions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the emergence of new private, corporate forms of authority. Second, others perceive of globalization as creating substantial challenges for the realization of universal human rights on a global scale. Such scholars are engaged in criticism of the existing institutional arrangements of the formal human rights regime. They highlight the way in which human rights act as a form of power over people, especially where different ways of life are brought into contact and conflict through transformations associated with globalization. Furthermore, they reject the idea of the progressive realization of human rights as some form of an inevitable unfolding of history or as a singularly desired end point, and instead acknowledge conflicting conceptions of rights as expressions of social struggle A third group of scholars are engaged in the critique of the conception and function of human rights within globalization. From this viewpoint, globalization reveals that ideas of universal and indivisible human rights, along with their progressive realization, are flawed and need to be replaced by more substantive concepts. The critiques stem from the perspectives of neo-Marxism, postpositivism, feminism, and cultural relativism.

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