Having articulated the need for and benefits of culturally sensitive approaches to human rights implementation involving social institutions, Chapter 3 considers their permissibility under international law. It does this by analysing the obligations on states parties to implement international human rights treaties, focusing on their discretion to employ measures so long as they are effective. This includes enacting legislation or undertaking a variety of other measures of implementation. Despite this broad discretion, Chapter 3 discerns a preference for the domestic legal incorporation of treaties evinced by scholars and the UN treaty bodies. This preference is critiqued as part of the legalisation of human rights, which marginalises other effective implementation measures that may be more culturally sensitive. Analysing the human rights treaties, as well as the interpretations of their respective treaty bodies, Chapter 3 identifies the wide scope for UN human rights treaties to be implemented via measures other than legislation.

Finally, Chapter 6 draws on the book’s analysis to make conclusions and recommendations designed to improve the effectiveness of domestic human rights implementation. These recommendations regarding social institutions are directed primarily towards states parties to international human rights treaties, as well as to the UN treaty bodies. It urges a shift in the international discourse on culture and human rights, a more creative approach to implementation measures, and greater scope for non-state actors. The chapter situates this analysis in the present context of globalisation, the rise of privatisation and the changing role of the state. It also looks ahead to projections of increasing religiosity and to Islam becoming the world’s largest religion. The chapter explores the broader application of the book’s main contention and its thematic connection to other scholarship on human rights narratives and challenges to state-centricity.

Chapter 5 explores the role of social institutions in human rights implementation by way of a case study. Using the example of Islamic law and organisations as social institutions, the study examines their role in implementing women’s right to family planning in Indonesia. The study exposes the ways in which Islamic law and organisations were involved in Indonesia’s family planning programme, and assesses their role and contribution as perceived by local actors. Chapter 5 pays special attention to the agency of Muslim reformists (particularly ‘Muslim feminists’) in offering reinterpretations of Islamic law that promote women’s health and equality. The study concludes that Islam was instrumental to the programme’s success, and reflects normatively on whether/to what extent states should engage social institutions in implementing their human rights treaty obligations. The chapter then evaluates and critiques the approach to Islam taken by the UN treaty bodies in their supervision of Indonesia’s domestic implementation.