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2 results

Social Institutions and International Human Rights Law Implementation
  • Every Organ of Society
  • Julie Fraser
  • Published online:
    04 September 2020
    Print publication:
    06 August 2020
  • Having articulated numerous human rights norms and standards in international treaties, the pressing challenge today is their realisation in States' parties around the world. Domestic implementation has proven a difficult task for national authorities as well as international supervisory bodies. This book examines the traditional State-centric and legalistic approach to implementation, critiquing its limited efficacy in practice and failure to connect with local cultures. The book therefore explores the permissibility of other measures of implementation, and advocates more culturally sensitive approaches involving social institutions. Through an interdisciplinary case study of Islam in Indonesia, the book demonstrates the power of social institutions like religion to promote rights compliant positions and behaviours. Like the preamble of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the book reiterates the role not just of the State but indeed 'every organ of society' in realising rights.

  • 2 - Human Rights and Their Cultural Connection

  • Julie Fraser, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Book:
    Social Institutions and International Human Rights Law Implementation</I>
    Published online:
    04 September 2020
    Print publication:
    06 August 2020, pp 21-63

  • Summary

    Due to persistent cultural contestation of rights, Chapter 2 elaborates upon the history and relationship between culture and human rights. It sketches the development of international human rights law from the 1940s to date, detailing the debates in that period regarding universality and cultural relativism. The chapter concludes that the debate is less dichotomous now, forging a middle path that acknowledges (to an extent) the importance of culture and its (not unlimited) accommodation in human rights. One mechanism by which human rights can accommodate cultural diversity is via domestic implementation. Therefore, Chapter 2 includes a detailed analysis of literature on culturally sensitive approaches to human rights implementation, which advocate embedding rights in local social institutions to secure their acceptance, protection and enjoyment. Chapter 2 argues that such approaches are crucial as they demonstrate principled respect for cultural diversity, as well as promoting the efficacy of implementation measures.