Conferencepaper aims to produce a workshop discussion about the similarities between thetwo criticisms of international human rights, which are made by culturalrelativism, on the one hand, by feminists, on the other hand.
The broadcontours of such criticism will emerge in subsequent discussion and therefore OonaghReitman proposed initial brief explanation as follows. This paper explains howtwo of the criticisms appear to oppose each other in the realm of internationalhuman rights of women. Culturalrelativist criticism, intent Oonagh Reitman criticism made of the claim thathuman rights are universal, human rights are possessed only by virtue of beinghuman and the substance, form and interpretation are not subject to variationsin culture1.Cultural relativism consists in withdrawing the claim, arguing instead that thesource of human rights is a culture, and as a culturally diverse, so are(non-universal) human rights of their dictation2.Feministcriticism of human rights found in practice, those who hold human rights aremen, not women, and gender equality, and freedom from discrimination for women,given a low priority in the international arena3.Part 1 consists of the exposition of cultural relativism argument made in thefield of “human rights” of women by way of a description of thelocation of the intersection and the disagreement between the feminist critiqueand relativist. This section also shows the cultural relativism seem to havenegative effects on the realization and enforcement of women’s human rights,which actually happened in explaining the difficulties feminist withrelativism, which in turn, may partly explain vigilance relativist feminism.
There is a clear tension between the feminist and cultural relativist critiquehegemonic ideology of human rights and the consequences of each position. Part2, is unfortunate and it is not necessary, in that there are importantsimilarities between them. Parallel then noted between the two branches ofcriticism suggests the possibility that they may operate together and notcontradict each other, to achieve progress in their respective goals,especially the concern clear them for the dignity and wellbeing of women,including women belonging to a culture where relativism claimed want to protect( “women of culture”, for want of a better acronym).
In part 3,Oonagh Reitman hesitate to propose an outline of what he calls”cooperative approach”.1 Donnelly, J, 1989 UniversalHuman Rights in Theory and Practice. Ithaca: Cornell. p.109-110, in OonaghReitman2 Coomaraswamy, 1994 in Oonagh Reitman3Bunch 1990 and 1995 in Oonagh Reitman.
