Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Human rights violations are perpetrated in all parts of the world, and the universal reaction to such atrocities is overwhelmingly one of horror and sadness. Yet, as Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im and his contributors attest, our viewpoint is clouded and biased by the expectations native to our own culture. How do other cultures view human rights issues? Can an analysis of these issues through multiple viewpoints, both cross-cultural and indigenous, help us reinterpret and reconstruct prevailing theories of human rights?

Auteur
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University and the editor of Human Rights Under African Constitutions, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Contenu

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Abdullahi A. An-Na'im

SECTION I.GENERAL ISSUES OF A CROSS-CULTURAL APPROACH TO HUMAN RIGHTS

1. Toward a Cross-Cultural Approach to Defining International Standards of Human Rights: The Meaning of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
   Abdullahi A. An-Na'im
2. Cultural Foundations for the International Protection of Human Rights
   Richard Falk
3. Making a Goddess of Democracy from Loose Sand: Thoughts on Human Rights in the People's Republic of China
   William P. Alford
4. Dignity, Community, and Human Rights
   Rhoda E. Howard

SECTION II.PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF ALTERNATIVE CULTURAL INTERPRETATION

5. Postliberal Strands in Western Human Rights Theory: Personalist-Communitarian Perspectives
   Virginia A. Leary
6. Should Communities Have Rights? Reflections on Liberal Individualism
   Michael McDonald
7. A Marxian Approach to Human Rights
   Richard Nordahl

SECTION III.REGIONAL AND INDIGENOUS CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

8. North American Indian Perspectives on Human Rights
   James W. Zion
9. Aboriginal Communities, Aboriginal Rights, and the Human Rights System in Canada
   Allan McChesney
10. Political Culture and Gross Human Rights Violations in Latin America
    Hugo Fruhling
11. Custom Is Not a Thing, It Is a Path: Reflections on the Brazilian Indian Case
    Manuela Carneiro da Cunha
12. Cultural Legitimacy in the Formulation and Implementation of Human Rights Law and Policy in Australia
    Patricia Hyndman
13. Considering Gender: Are Human Rights for Women, Too? An Australian Case
    Diane Bell
14. Right to Self-Determination: A Basic Human Right Concerning Cultural Survival. The Case of the Sami and the Scandinavian State
    Tom G. Svensson

SECTION IV.PROSPECTS FOR A CROSS-CULTURAL APPROACH TO HUMAN RIGHTS

15. Prospects for Research on the Cultural Legitimacy of Human Rights: The Cases of Liberalism and Marxism
    Tore Lindholm

Conclusion
Abdullahi A. An-Na'im

Bibliography
Contributors
Index