Monday, May 5, 2014

The Culturalization of Human Rights Law

Federico Lenzerini (University of Siena). The Culturalization of Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2014). 

"The idea of multi-culturalism has had a significant impact across many areas of law. This book explores how it has shaped the recent development of international human rights law. Custodians of human rights, especially international monitoring bodies, try to advance the effectiveness of human rights standards by interpreting these standards according to a method strongly inspired by the idea of cultural pluralism. Human rights are therefore evolving from the traditional 'universal' idea, to a 'multi-cultural' one, whereby rights are interpreted to respond to the needs of the communities and individuals directly concerned."

The Culturalization of Human Rights Law book jacket