Universality and Cultural Relativity in the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights: Tension between Individual and Group Rights

Virgilio, Antonio Faria De Oliveira-E-Costa (2005) Universality and Cultural Relativity in the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights: Tension between Individual and Group Rights. PhD thesis, Boston College The Graduate School of Art and Sciences.

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Abstract

The African Charter on Human and People's Rights, with its emphasis on group rights and individual duties, challenges the Western Liberal account of rights, as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These documents present a different conception of the person and human dignity. African traditional cultures emphasize the communitarian aspect of the person while Liberal cultures give strong value to the individuality of the person. These cultural differences bring to the fore not only the tension between individual and group rights but also the question of the possibility of the universality of human rights. This dissertation will show that universals are not incompatible with cultural particularities. Cultural particularities give content to universals. Using the notion of "concrete universality," the dissertation argues that the universality of human rights can only be achieved through a dialogue among different cultural approaches to the notion of rights. In the concrete case of the opposition between individual rights and group rights, the dissertation argues that both Western and African cultures need to hold the tension between individual and community. Through dialogue, what initially seems to be a dichotomization between African emphasis on communalism and Western emphasis on individualism can be refashioned so that a synthesis may be constructed into a new form of universalism. By studying African cultures, two important concepts are affirmed. On the one hand, African cultures value communal solidarity. Africans have a strong sense of belonging to an ethnic group. Therefore, these groups can serve as the arena where participation of all in mutual discourse occurs. National governments should be able to integrate these "intermediate" groups into a larger public discourse for the achievement of a common consensus at a national level. On the other hand, traditional African communitarianism does not completely deny the importance of the self. This aspect of the culture must be re-appropriated in contemporary Africa through participation of all in sociopolitical dialogue.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Universality and cultural relativity, the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, Individual and Group Rights
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	Mr Christopher Mapunda
Date Deposited:	30 Jun 2015 11:45
Last Modified:	30 Jun 2015 13:58
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/238

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