1. Human Rights and Cultural
Relativism
Khurshid & Rubel

2. How have cultural relativists challenged
the idea of universal human rights?
How compelling are these arguments?

3. Structure

Consensus of universal HR non-existence

Cultural Relativists

Case Study

4. Consensus of non-existence of
universal HR

Ideological differences

Cultural differences

Economical modernization

5. Cultural Relativists

Each culture is unique

The outside deriving moral

Authoritative cultural morality

The lack of morality comparison

6. The article 25 of the UDHR states that 'everyone
has the right to a standard of living adequate for
the health and well-being of himself'

7. Morality Violence
Disease &
infections are
not the
conditions
promoting
health
Too young to
understand
the
significance
of the event

8. “men [and women] always have the greatest respect for that which is farthest off”
- Thucydides
Culture precedes Human rights.
Within cultures ‘rights’ already exist
as norms and values i.e.
homosexuality
Human Rights are Cross-Cultural

9. -What is the role of culture in HR history?
Cross-Cultural exchange - Europe and the Middle East:
Ibn Khaldun [1332-1406] “As time passes and kings succeed each other, they
lose their tribal habits in favour of more civilized ones” (The Muqaddimah)
Marcel Boisard “The legal influence of Islamic Arabic civilization on Europe at its
awakening seems, however, to be incontestable” (Boisard, 1980: 430)
John Locke – regarded Edward Pococke as his most influential teacher.
Pococke studied in Aleppo, Syria, where he collected >400 Arabic manuscripts
(Russell, 1994: 239)

10. [1] Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be
presumed innocent until proved guilty...(Article 11 UNDHR)

11. - Why then is universality difficult culturally?
Identity and Practice
Confucius – if leaders and authorities led by example there would be no need to
implement laws (see Tomlin, 1986: 202-226)
Frantz Fanon “if philosophy and intelligence are invoked to proclaim the equality
of men, they have also been employed to justify the extermination of men” (2008:
17)
Jack Donnelly “the state not only actively refuses to implement, but grossly and
systematically violates, most internationally recognized human rights” (2007)

12. ‘Dialogue Among Civilisations’
(Mohammad Khatami, 2000)
“Cultures and civilizations that have naturally evolved among various nations in
the course of history... [they] cohere with each other and consolidate within an
appropriate network of relationships. In spite of all constitutive plurality and
diversity, a unique and harmonious form can be abstracted from the
collection... today it is impossible to bar ideas from freely travelling between
cultures and civilizations in disparate parts of the world”
http://www.unesco.org/dialogue/en/khatami.htm

13. Bibliography
Boisard, M. A. (1980) ‘On the Probable Influence of Islam on Western Public and International Law’
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 11 (4): pp.429-450
Donelly, J., (2007) 'The relative Universality of Human Rights', Human Rights Quarterly, 29 (25) 281-
305.
Fanon, F. (2008) Black Skin White Masks, London: Pluto Press
Ibn Khaldun (2005) The Muqaddimah trans. Franz Rosenthal., Princeton: Princeton University Press
James, S., (1994), “Reconciling International Human Rights and Cultural Relativism: The Case of
Female Circumcision', Bioethics, 8(1): 1-26.
Pollis, A. & Schwab, P. (1979) ‘Human Rights: A Western Concept with Limited Applicability’ in ibid.
(eds.) Human Rights: Cultural and Ideological Perspectives, New York: Praeger pp.1-18
Russell, G. A. (1994) The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century
England (ed.) The Netherlands: E.J. Brill
Tomlin, E. W. F. (1986) Philosophers of East and West, London: Oak Tree Books Ltd