Cultural Relativism and Human Rights: Reconsidering the Africanist Discourse

Abstract

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.

Witchcraft stigmatization in Nigeria: Challenges and successes in the implementation of child rights

“…This debate further highlights inherent tensions within the human rights discourse concerning the promotion of a universal culture of human rights which may conflict with localized values, and the resulting perception of human rights as an imposition of specifically Western values (see for example, Brown, 1997; Cerna, 1994; Donnelly, 2003; Harris-Short, 2003; Ibanwoh, 2001). Challenges to the belief in child witches in Nigeria, which have come partially but not exclusively from Western CSOs, have therefore been perceived as the enforcement and prioritization of foreign value systems over local principles and practices.…”

Actualizing Human Rights

“…1 Some important and current references about relativism and human rights are: Donnelly (2013); Nickel (2014; Williams (2003); and Ibhawoh (2001) and Sen (1999), also on Asian values, with which this chapter will not explicitly engage. See also e.g.…”

INDONESIA’S DEMOCRACY UNDER JOKO €œJOKOWI” WIDODO LEADERSHIPS: CONSTRUCTING HUMAN RIGHTS IN GLOBALIZATION (2014-2019)

“…Most recently, some scholars have argued that there was in Africa's past a vibrant rights discourse that has been lost in the contemporary debate on human rights, which if drawn upon can become the basis for a renewal of a genuinely local debate on human rights (Ibhawoh 2001). They point out that as early as the 1960s, when most African countries became independent, African leaders and activist-intellectuals from Nyerere of Tanzania to Nkrumah of Ghana were involved in a continent-wide discussion about how to best guarantee human rights in their respective postcolonial states.…”

“…In 1981, well before the Asian values debate gained currency in the West, the Organization of African Unity adopted the African Charter for Human and Peoples' Rights, which emphasized economic, social, and cultural rights, the rights of people to self-determination, and the right to existence, equality, and nondomination. According to human rights historian Bonny Ibhawoh, "At a time when the rest of the world was more concerned about civil and political rights, the African charter reflected the human rights concern about equality and non-domination of most Africans" (Ibhawoh 2001).…”