Human Rights, Southern Voices: Francis Deng, Abdullahi An-Na'im, Yash Ghai and Upendra Baxi

by Edited by William Twining

• ISBN13: 9780521113212
• ISBN10: 0521113210
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

A just international order and a healthy cosmopolitan discipline of law need to include perspectives that take account of the standpoints, interests, concerns and beliefs of non-Western people and traditions. The dominant scholarly and activist discourses about human rights have developed largely without reference to these other viewpoints. Claims about universality sit uneasily with ignorance of other traditions and parochial or ethnocentric tendencies. The object of the book is to make accessible the ideas of four jurists who present distinct 'Southern' perspectives on human rights.

Author Biography

William Twining is Quain Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus of University College London. He has worked extensively in Eastern Africa, the Commonwealth and the United States. Much of his recent work explores the implications of globalization for law and legal theory. His previous book, General Jurisprudence: Understanding Law from a Global Perspective, is a precursor of Human Rights, Southern Voices.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Francis Mading Deng	p. 4
Introduction	p. 4
Readings	p. 9
The Cow and the Thing Called "What": Dinka Cultural Perspectives on Wealth and Poverty	p. 9
Human rights, universalism and democracy	p. 30
Traditional institutions and participatory democracy in Africa	p. 30
Globalisation and localisation of democracy in the African context	p. 33
Universalism versus relativism in cultural contextualization of human rights	p. 36
Cultural constraints on the universality of human rights	p. 39
Dinka moral values and human rights principles	p. 42
A cultural approach to human rights among the Dinka	p. 44
Suggestions for further reading	p. 52
Abdullahi An-Na'im	p. 53
Introduction	p. 53
Readings	p. 58
Context and methodology: the Second Message of Islam	p. 58
Shari'a and basic human rights concerns	p. 62
Cultural legitimation: Towards a cross-cultural approach to defining international standards of human rights: The meaning of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment	p. 79
Islam and the secular state	p. 91
Why Muslims need a secular state	p. 91
Islam, Shari'a, and constitutionalism: non-Muslims	p. 94
Audiences	p. 96
Inclusive public debate	p. 97
Secularism in context	p. 98
Economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR)	p. 98
Suggestions for further reading	p. 102
Yash Ghai	p. 104
Introduction	p. 104
Readings	p. 109
Universalism and relativism: human rights as a framework for negotiating interethnic claims	p. 109
Introduction	p. 109
Relativism: a critical assessment	p. 113
Generalizations from national studies	p. 115
Understanding human rights in Asia	p. 120
Quotations	p. 150
The Asian values debate	p. 150
Confucianism	p. 151
Hong Kong's Basic Law	p. 151
The nature of economic, social, and cultural rights	p. 152
The Justiciability of economic, social, and cultural rights	p. 152
Poverty and human rights	p. 154
Post-modernism, globalization, and the nation state	p. 155
Suggestions for further reading	p. 156
Upendra Baxi	p. 157
Introduction	p. 157
Readings	p. 162
Voices of suffering and the future of human rights	p. 162
Rights and "development"	p. 204
"Development", "terror" and the posthuman world	p. 204
Gandhi and development	p. 207
Time and development: The Millennium Development Goals	p. 208
Suggestions for further reading	p. 210
Conclusion	p. 211
Bibliography	p. 222
Index	p. 231
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