Saturday, August 29, 2009

cultural relativism , A Look Back To Look Ahead, Answers Or Questions?

Here is a document I found 1 of only 4 in a state department search that dated back 2001 until present day of the US State Department Archive with search terms"Cultural Relativism Country Reports" The others can be found at the US State Department site and I will leave you a link if you are interested in them . This one was quite simple and to the point. So I decided to post it along with one from the United Nations Archive regarding Uganda. But first things first. Lets have a look at this one a bit. This article is dated this year May 2009.
UNCLASSIFIED
CULTURAL RELATIVISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Q: How do we respond to the use of religion and culture as an excuse for
honor killings, FGM, other gender related violence, or other forms of human
rights abuses?
There are existing international standards about fundamental human
rights, which include the right to security of the person regardless of gender.
Religion cannot and should not be used as an excuse for violations of
fundamental rights. We do not pull our punches when discussing topics
such as honor killings, female genital mutilation and other abuses with
countries that attempt to excuse reprehensible behavior. Furthermore, we
have a wide range of programs to help address such concerns.
UNCLASSIFIED Source:
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/124128.pdf

It's to bad that there is no elaboration as to what those programs are right? I know many of us that are interested in this topic would like to know that answer "programs". I believe the response from the State Department but I am also submerged in human rights abuse and cultural relativism at the moment so a bright and shiny light would be nice about now and I just do not see one anywhere so far...... I am sure that there are plenty of good intentions on the US part, but we can not be there every second to oversee militia type govt in action or military coups every other year as new leaders come and go etc etc....Mostly all in the name of some type of greed or other act of human rights disregard or just disdain and ignorance.

My second post is pretty good because it actually dates back all the way to 2000 but is being used by the United Nations to propose to China for an upcoming Summit of sorts."Uganda is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and diverse country, where different societies have different traditions, values, customs and practices. Developing legislation that standardizes values and norms with the respect to women’s rights often meets stiff resistance on grounds of cultural relativity. Fully translating international human rights standards into domestic laws has to navigate the intricacies of cultural relativism." Source:http://www.uneca.org/acgd/beijingplus15/Questionnaire/DAW/English/Uganda.pdf

The Article is entitled:
THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA
IMPLEMENTION OF THE BEIJING DECLARATION AND
PLATFORM FOR ACTION (1995) AND OUTCOME OF THE
TWENTY – THIRD SPECIAL SESSION OF THE UN
GENERAL ASSEMBLY (2000)
A REPORT IN PREPARATION OF THE FIFTEENTH (15)
ANNIVERSARY OF THE ADOPTION OF THE BEIJING
DECLARATION AND PLATFORM OF ACTION IN 2010
GOVERNMENT OF UGANDA
Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development
P.O Box 7136
Kampala, Uganda
Telephones: 041-4-347854
041-4-348755
Fax: 041-256374
E-mail : ps@mglsd.go.ug
2009


Anyway, what I found most interesting here; is the usage by the top supranational organization; the United Nations, using the term"cultural relativism" in a modern day report which is going to be used for a very important country transaction. It goes to show once again that this social science notion is still alive although not widely used as evidenced by only 4 articles in a 10 year span in the State Department Archive.
However, there were numerous articles dealing with "cultural relativism" term specifically in the United Nations archives! What preliminary conclusions might we draw from this notion alone? Did I mention when I searched with the term social culture the hits were endless almost at the State Department website? So it seems there has been a trade off for the word social culture for cultural relativism. At least this is my preliminary analysis. Because in meaning as I perused the articles, it appeared they were referring to the same notions as culturally relevant social practices by a country in one aspect or another. I may be way off in left field or I might have hit it over the fence; who knows right?

More good food for thought...

William

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