HRC Session 23 SIDE PANEL
May 30, 2013
Contribution by Farida Shaheed, Special
Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights
Traditional
values, religion and culture intersect women’s human rights in intricate and
complex ways. For example, the CEDAW Committee notes that “In all nations,
cultural traditions and religious beliefs have played a part in confining women
to the private spheres of activity and excluding them from active participation
in public life”[1] Scholars underline that so many practices and norms discriminating
against women are justified by reference to culture, religion and tradition,
that it can be said that “no social group has suffered greater violation of its
human rights in the name of culture than women”
and that it is “inconceivable” that a number of such practices “would be
justified if they were predicated upon another protected classification such as
race”.[2] The use of discourses of
cultural relativism to challenge the universal legitimacy and applicability of
human rights norms is also a serious concern noted by UN Special Procedures
(A/HRC/4/34, in particular paras. 19, 42 and 68).
Hence, in
examining the inter-relationships from the perspective of women’s human rights
it is important to remember:
1. All cultures “share a common set of
values that belong to humankind in its entirety, and that those values have made
an important contribution to the development of human rights norms and
standards”.
2. Such values are inscribed in the
UDHR that, having incorporated diverse, though not all, cultural as well as
political traditions and perspectives and having been adopted by consensus,
“represents a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations”
(UDHR Preamble) for the rights of all persons and communities and the
obligations of states. Often considered to be international customary law, the
UDHR provides the essential framework for cross-cultural dialogue and
understandings on human rights.
The question
is: if there is agreement on the universality of human rights why is there a
need for a discussion on traditional values?
Firstly,
there is no such thing as a "view from nowhere". All human thinking and
reasoning is rooted in people’s cultural perspectives and understandings,
including the traditions of continuously elaborating the contents and
understanding of human rights.
This cultural
rootedness of human thinking and cultural diversities makes it essential to
ensure and to promote international human rights norms and standards amongst all
communities of the world. It is equally vital that the continuing development of
universal human rights standards be informed by the cultural diversity of the
world’s peoples.
In this
regard there are a series of question that need to be asked. Specifically in
terms of this panel:
From a human
rights perspective what is crucial is how to arrive at a point at which women
own their culture, religion and tradition, including traditional values, as well
as their human rights.
The
dialectical and dialogical interplay between universal human rights standards
and diverse localized realities raises a series of questions which need to be
considered. Specifically in terms of this side panel:
• To what extent is it possible to distinguish between traditional
values and traditional practices when practices are the external visible
manifestations of values?
• Is there a common understanding of what, in practical terms,
constitutes “traditional values”? At present there is no universally accepted
understanding of the root word “tradition”, let alone “traditional
values”
·
It is important to recognize that every
living tradition is subject to continual self-reinvention and to think of
traditions, traditional values and cultures not just –possibly not even
primarily – as links with the past but as trajectories to the future that enable
people to become agents of their own development and
self-realisation.
• In this perspective a fundamental question is: Who is to define the
parameters and contents of ‘traditional values’? Can there be a listing of
traditional values that is indeed universal? Moreover, is such a listing, which
risks stultifying further development around human rights, even
desirable?
Viewing
culture and attendant beliefs, including customs, traditions and religious
interpretations, as “static” obstructs the realization of women’s human rights
because it presupposes that particular values, practices and beliefs are
“intrinsic” to a given culture and, therefore, immutable.
It is
important, therefore, to unpack the terms ‘tradition’ and ‘traditional’
precisely because of the strong emotive quality and deep resonances tradition
has with cultural identity and a sense of self.
From the
perspective of women’s human rights, the right to access, participate in and
contribute to cultural life enshrined in the UDHR and ICESCR means, amongst
other things, that (A/HRC/20/26, para. 43)
women must be able to embrace or reject particular cultural practices and
identities as well as to revise and (re)negotiate existing traditions, values or
practices, regardless of their provenance. Women must enjoy the freedom to
create new communities of shared cultural values around any markers of identity
they want to privilege, new cultural meanings and practices without fear of
punitive actions, including any form of violence. In this same vein, the right to access and
enjoy cultural heritage, including values passed on through tradition,
encompasses the right to interpret and assign meaning to cultural heritage
received from the past, including traditional values, and to contribute to
establishing new values and traditions.
The essential question of who decides which
traditional practices and values are to be upheld and which discarded signals
the danger of making something as undefined and constantly evolving as
“traditional values” the standards of human rights. Traditional values must not
be used to fragment international human rights into a number of self-contained
regimes. Further, just because something is said to be traditional is not enough
for it to be accorded sanctity. Traditional values and reflected traditions and
practices not in keeping with norms and standards of human rights must be
overturned through internal debates and cross-cultural dialogues.
Human rights
are always implemented and enjoyed within specific cultural, socioeconomic and
political environments.[3] They have to be realized within, and are thus contingent upon, the
factors and dynamics operative on the ground, including local knowledge and
practices, and specific cultural traditions, values and norms. Ensuring the
cultural rootedness of human rights, in particular women’s cultural rights,
requires ownership of internationally established human rights among all
communities. Human rights have to be “vernacularized”, including through
“initiatives that ground human rights concepts in diverse cultural traditions,
in a culturally relevant lexicon and philosophical vocabulary”.
The
continuing development of human rights standards should be informed by the
cultural diversity of humankind while recognizing that cultures are always
dynamic: people’s perceptions, views and actions, rather than abstracted
“culture”, drive social, economic, political and cultural developments. In the
same way that all human rights standards constantly evolve, cultural beliefs and
understandings, normative rules and values, as well as practices are
continuously created, contested and (re)interpreted. In transforming their
culture(s) by adopting new ideas and modes of operation, concerned people often
continue to draw upon the moral and spiritual resources within their own
traditions.
It is vitally
important to ensure that all societies continuously reinforce the respect,
promotion and protection of the human dignity and worth of all members of
society through the norms and standards of human rights as developed and
accepted by the international community.
From the
perspective of women’s human rights, this entails ensuring that the nexus of
traditional values, culture, and religion reflect human rights standards and
norms and uphold women’s human rights.
In my report
to the General Assembly last year, I have stressed that promoting realization of
equal cultural rights for women is a way of helping to reconstruct gender in
ways that transcend notions of women’s inferiority and subordination, thereby
improving conditions for the full and equal enjoyment of their human rights in
general. This requires a shift in perspective: from seeing culture as an
obstacle to women’s human rights to ensuring women’s equal cultural rights;
meaning that women’s perspectives and contributions must move from the margins
of cultural life to the centre of the processes that create, interpret and shape
culture and determine societal values, regardless of whether values are labeled
‘traditional’ or not. The tendency to marginalize women’s concerns and silence
their voices must be overcome, obstructions impeding their equal participation
in public life eliminated and their underrepresentation in the institutions and
processes defining the culture, religious or spiritual traditions and values of
their communities surmounted. Women must be recognized as, and supported to be,
equal spokespersons vested with the authority to determine which of the
community’s traditions and values are to be respected, protected and transmitted
to future generations.
Measures are
required to support and enhance the cultural legitimacy and symbolic validation
of new tools, interpretations and values that enable practices harmful to women
to be surmounted. It is particularly important to support women’s transformative
initiatives: to listen to local women and build on the tools and terminology
they use, including elements to be retrieved from cultural heritage that may
have fallen into disuse. The right to take part in cultural life it must be
stressed is intricately inter-linked with promoting women’s equal rights in the
area of public and political life, as well as family life.
The task
ahead is to find appropriate modalities that enable discussions and debates
around traditional values and culture that promote democracy, human rights and
fundamental freedoms for everyone based on principles of equality as given in
the UDHR. In this, I believe ensuring cultural rights for women on a basis of
equality with men, plays a determinative role.
Thank you
[1] Committee on
the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 23
(1997) on women in political and public life, para. 10.
[2] Arati Rao, “The Politics of Gender and Culture in
International Human Rights Discourse”, in Women’s Rights, Human Rights:
International Feminist Perspectives, Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper, eds. (New
York and London, Routledge, 1994), p. 167.
[3] Most of the rest of the presentation is taken directly from
my report on women’s equal cultural rights for women; A/67/287.
