Human Rights in the Third World: A

Cross Cultural Context

Pat Ray Magpulong Dagapioso
 Strong Cultural Relativism
• David Forsythe’s definition: ‘all truth and
goodness is relative to particular cultures.’
• Scholars and politicians see the Western
approach to human rights as a form of cultural
imperialism.
• Josiah Cobbah argues that Western rights
traditions are fundamentally flawed and are
inferior to rights traditions from Africa.
 Josiah Cobbah’s Argument
• Cobbah sees that the universal standards of
human rights is based on philosophically
unsound view of human nature.
• Universal human rights defies the existence of
cultures.
• Further, UHR, fails to meet the needs and fails
to deliver dignity to oppressed groups and
individualsa in Western and Non-Western
Societies.
 Josiah Cobbah’s Argument – Part II
• Cobbah argues that the natural rights theory are
unrealistic. Natural rights theory postulates: equality
of all human beings, inalienability of rights, and
stress on individualism.
• Cobbah tries to replace this with African counter
example as an international model for human rights.
This model, Cobbah believes, can speak to the needs
of developing nations.
• This aFrican model is necessary for the promotion of
2nd generation socioeconomic rights and 3rd solidarity
rights.
 The African Model of human Rights
• This model contains and stesses
communalism, duties and hierarchy.
• ‘Rather than survival of the fittest and control
over nature, the African worldview is
tempered with the general quiding principle of
survial of the entire community, and a sense of
cooperation, interdependence and collective
responsibility.
 Cobbah’s Assumptions
• Cobbah holds that this Africna model of
human rights is as ‘valid as the European
theories of individualism and the social
contract.’
• Cobbah tries to argue that the Africna view is
superior where it really counts and his position
entails refection of the Western tradition in a
fundamental way.
 The Feminist Critique
• Feminist view on human rights criticizes all
three view on culture and rights.
• The arguments of feminist scholars base their
views on the androcentric biases of the three
and for their lack of attention to women’s
rights.
• This view is central to the feminist’s view that
human rights concerns of women are not
always the same as of men’s.
 Feminist’s View on the Three Views
• Spike Peterson has constructed a feminist critique of
what she calls ‘givens’ in human rights discourse.
• Spike criticize on three grounds: Western element,
element of liberalism, and the element of
individualism.
• Western element – Spike found weaknesses same as
what cultural relativism has found. Yet Spike also
pointed out that cultural relativism also allows for its
own forms of violations, e.g., burning of wives in asia,
and genital mutilation in Africa.
 Spike Petterson on Western Element
• Spike challenges that the Western element is
based on male perspectives, male priorities
and male realities.
• Women’s views, perspectives and realities had
become marginalized or ignored.
 Spike Petterson on Liberalism
• Liberalism assumes that all humans are presumed to
have equal powers of reason. Thus individual
autonomy is paramount.
• Spike criticize this one for giving priority to the
abstract and to political rights. Feminist perspectives
prefers to stress the primacy fo economic rights.
• Spike furthers her point that knowledge, language and
identity are all developed within the context of social
groups.
 Spike Petterson on Individualism

• Individualism is a masculine viewpoint

according to Spike. Individualism stresses the
abstract, separation apartness.
• Spike stresses that each woman’s viewpoint is
based on concrete, connectedness and the
group.
 Charlotte Bunch, Feminist
• Women are routinely subjected to the grim realities of
women’s rights.
• Women are: tortured, starved, terrorized, humiliated,
mutilated, and murdered.
• Yet, women’s rights are still not classified as
fundamental human rights.
• Narrow definition of women’s rights impedes
consideration of women’s rights. For Western definitions
of human rights only caters to civil and political rights,
feminists seeks to promote the increased attention to
socioeconomic rights of women.
 History of Women’s Rights –
Snippet’s View
• Abuse of women has not been a top priority since the
end of World War 2.
• In 1993, 124 nations presented petitions in Vienna
demanding that gender violence be recognized as a
violation of human rights.
• In 1993, WHO (you know the acronym), targeted
female genital mutilation for elimination.
• Bunch, calls for a an increased attention in
international human rights arena’s the plight of
women in the ’90s.
 History of Women’s Rights –
Snippet’s View, Part II
• Bunch further calls for the feminist
transformation of human rights. This includes
the notion that violence against women be
considered as a hate crime, as is violence
against homosexuals, Jews and other
minorities.
 MNCs and Women’s Rights
• This topic centers on how human rights abuses were
committed by non-state actors.
• MNCs harms women indefinitely. For example, the case of
Export Processing Zones. Governments set aside territory and
provide economic incentives specifically for factories
producing goods for the international market.
• Cheap labor is their major selling point. Yet, more than 70%
of the workforce are women, younger women. Furhter,
MNCs and EPZs are waivered with minimum wage laws,
safety regulations and environmental protections
The End