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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?
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.
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Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives
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University of Pennsylvania Press PENNSYLVANIA STUDIES IN HUMAN RIGHTS Bert B. Lockwood, Jr., Series Editor Professor and Director, Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, University of Cincinnati College of Law
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Human Rights in Cross-Cultural
Perspectives A Quest for Consensus
Edited by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Nacim
University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia Bereitgestellt von | New York University Bobst Library Technical Services Angemeldet Heruntergeladen am | 08.11.16 22:00
Copyright © 1992 by the University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America
Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Human rights in cross-cultural perspectives: a quest for consensus / edited by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im. p. cm. — (Pennsylvania studies in human rights) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8T22-3I04-X (cloth). - ISBN 0-8122-1568-0 (pbk.) 1. Human rights. I. Na'im, 'Abd Allah Ahmad, 1946– . II. Series. K3240.6.H8767 1991 323—dc20 91-29297
CIP First paperback printing 1995
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Contents Acknowledgments
ix
Introduction Abdullahi A. An-Nacim
1
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-Nacim
19
2. Cultural Foundations for the International Protection of Human Rights Richard Falk
44
3. Making a Goddess of Democracy from Loose Sand: Thoughts on Human Rights in the People's Republic of China William P. Alford
65
4. Dignity, Community, and Human Rights Rhoda E. Howard
81
Section II. Problems and Prospects of Alternative Cultural Interpretation 5. Postliberal Strands in Western Human Rights Theory: Personalist-Communitarian Perspectives Virginia A. Leary Bereitgestellt von | New York University Bobst Library Technical Services Angemeldet Heruntergeladen am | 08.11.16 22:00
105
vi
Contents
6. Should Communities Have Rights? Reflections on Liberal Individualism Michael McDonald
133
7. A Marxian Approach to Human Rights Richard Nordahl
162
Section III. Regional and Indigenous Cultural Perspectives on Human Rights 8. North American Indian Perspectives on Human Rights James W. Zion
191
9. Aboriginal Communities, Aboriginal Rights, and the Human Rights System in