Is it possible, given culturally incongruent perspectives, to validate any common standards of behaviour? Is cultural relativity be a problem when cultures are porous? Can we implement human rights without incorporating the idea into the fabric of culture? This book addresses such questions with an inventive and original understanding of culture.

In recent years, feminist theory has increasingly defined itself in opposition to universalism and to discourses of human rights. Rejecting the troubled legacies of Enlightenment thinking, feminists have questioned the very premises upon which the international human rights movement is based. Rather than abandoning human rights discourse, however, this book argues that feminism should reclaim the universal and reconstruct the theory and practice of human rights. Discourse ethics and its post-metaphysical defence of universalism is offered as a key to this process of reconstruction. The implications of discourse ethics and the possibility of reclaiming universalism are explored in the context of the reservations debate in international human rights law and further examined in debates on women's human rights arising in Ireland, India and Pakistan. Each of these states shares a common constitutional heritage and, in each, religious-cultural claims, intertwined with processes of nation-building, have constrained the pursuit of gender equality. Ultimately, this book argues in favour of a dual-track approach to cultural conflicts, combining legal regulation with an ongoing moral-political dialogue on the scope and content of human rights.

This innovative reader brings together key works that demonstrate the important and unique contributions anthropologists have made to the understanding and practice of human rights over the last 60 years. Draws on a range of intellectual and methodological approaches to reveal both the ambiguities and potential of the postwar human rights project Brings together essays by both contemporary luminaries and seminal figures to provide a rich introduction to the subject Supplemented with selected international human rights documents and links to websites on human rights

This book presents the findings of the first comprehensive study on the most recent and most unique and innovative method of monitoring international human rights law at the United Nations. Since its existence, there has yet to be a complete and comprehensive book solely dedicated to exploring the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. Women and International Human Rights Law provides a much-needed insight to what the process is, how it operates in practice, and whether it meets its fundamental aim of promoting the universality of all human rights. The book addresses the topics with regard to international human rights law and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students interested in the monitoring and implementation of international human rights law at the United Nations. In addition, it will form supplementary reading for those students studying international human rights law on undergraduate programmes and will also appeal to academics and students with interests in political sciences and international relations.

International human rights law was originally focused on universal individual rights. This book examines the developments which have seen it change to a multi-cultural approach, one more sensitive to the cultures of the people directly affected by them. It argues that this can provide benefits, but that aspects of universalism must be retained.

This volume offers a new dimension to realist theories about world politics. It questions both the theoretical and empirical foundations of much of traditional realist thought by offering realist-oriented analyses that emphasize the possibilities of cooperation and accommodation through agreement over common motivations and concerns. The articles in this volume demonstrate that moral considerations can and do play a significant role in shaping state behavior and that despair about the possibility of improving the systems and institutions within which we live is unwarranted. Specific points of normative convergence are raised in some detail, especially on issues of war, membership and authority, humanitarian concern and the social consequences of globalization. Three ethical concepts form the core of the 'realism reconsidered' argued for here, namely, the ideas of pluralism, rights and fairness.

This volume focuses on the ethical significance of human rights, aiming at contributing to a universal culture of human rights with deep roots and wide horizons. Its purpose, scope and rationale are reflected in the three-part structure of the manuscript. Part I has a broad introductory historical, theoretical and legal character. Part II submits that an Ethics of Human Rights is best understood as an Ethics of Recognition of human worth, dignity and rights. Moreover, it is argued that human worth consists in the perfectibility of the human species, rooted in its semiotic nature, to be accomplished through the perfecting of human beings, for which the right to education is key. In Part III, the main legal and political outcomes of the Human Rights Revolution are described and answers to the most lasting and common criticisms of human rights are provided. To conclude, the human stature of the Big Five drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is profiled and the priority that should be recognized to human rights education is highlighted. Some appendices supplement the manuscript. While making a case for the high value and liberating power of the idea and ideal of human rights, objections, controversies and uncertainties are not at all overlooked and emerging issues are explored. The diversity of content of this volume meets many needs of the typical syllabus for a human rights course.

As a fundamental institution of human societies, law is a deeply influential factor in individual and social activity. Yet its normative status is controversial, particularly in pluralistic, secularized societies. Is law essentially the result of legislative creation and juridical interpretation, or can and should it reflect ethical values and imperatives? If it can what are the sources of those imperatives, and how do they achieve the necessary degree of social consensus in religiously diverse societies that are increasingly globalized and globalizing as a consequence of culture, commerce, communication and immigration? The Global Ethic and Law: Intersections and Interactions contributes to the consideration of these questions. Its contributors include academics from the U.S.A. and Europe, as well Hans Kueng, the author of the 1993 “Declaration Towards a Global Ethic” adopted by the Parliament of World Religions and Stephan Schlensog, General Secretary of the Global Ethic Foundation of Tuebingen, Germany.

This collection of papers offers a philosophical perspective - including the all-important and significant perspective from the point of view of 'dharma' - to a host of intricate ethical problems in personal, professional and social life, by providing an understanding of the concepts of human rights and responsibilities which are central to those problems.