Context Sensitive Universalism: From Patriarchal Culture to a Rights Culture

Yakın Ertürk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women
Presentation at the Musawah Conference, Kuala Lumpur, February 2009

The universal human rights discourse, which I believe has deep roots in the struggles of oppressed people in Western as well as non-Western societies, is a dynamic and evolving system stimulated by demands for justice and freedom based on ethical reasoning. As such, it has captured the aspirations of people everywhere and there is a growing convergence around its core values--inherent in human dignity, justice, non-discrimination, equality, fairness and universality.

All member states of the UN are a party to at least one, if not more, of the human rights instruments; wars are now fought in the name of human rights; globalization and neo-liberal economic policies are opposed by people on ethical grounds on the basis of this or that 'rights-based' approach; many multinational corporations find it indispensable for their long term interests that they are perceived as respectful of human rights.

Since the 1980s, women’s rights activists have worked with the existing human rights framework to expand the vision of rights to respond to the specificities of violations of rights common in women’s experiences. In this respect, human rights theory and practice has expanded from a narrow liberal understanding towards a more comprehensive one and considerable transformations have taken place in terms of demystifying the public/private dichotomy that historically harboured the private sphere from public scrutiny. The doctrine of state responsibility has also changed from negative to positive responsibility and states are now accountable for acts of violence against women, whether perpetrated by the state itself or by private actors, in the public or in the private sphere.

Consequently, progressive standards for women's human rights now enjoy international consensus, although the realities of women’s rights in many parts of the world are lagging. In the seventeen official country visits I have conducted in my capacity as the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences (SRVAW) I have found that even in those countries where gender equality has been achieved at impressive levels and discrimination against women has been relatively contained in the public sphere, women continue to be subordinated and subjected to abuse, whether in traditional or more tamed manifestations of a patriarchal culture. Furthermore, while public sphere violence receives greater recognition as a human rights issue, cultural discourses dominate the discussions of private violence, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, thus de-linking violence against women from unequal power relations.

In the post-cold war era culture has become the new site of political contestation and global conflict, which has deepened after 9/11. Backlash against the universal application of some of the core human rights norms, especially those pertaining to women and family life as well as conservative political trends globally have resulted in policy concessions that compromise or transgress universal human rights norms. This situation has had adverse consequences for women globally and it has been particularly striking for women in the Muslim world, putting them in an precarious position in their struggles for justice and equality.

Culturally Based Interpretations of Women’s Rights

As the SRVAW, I have encountered two general tendencies in the way cultural/religious discourses are articulated by government authorities when addressing women’s rights or lack of it: cultural relativist and cultural essentialist. The centrality of these discourses in state response to women’s rights has provoked me to challenge these notions in a report I submitted to the Human Rights Council in 2007.

(contd..)

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