Women's Human Rights and Culture: From Deadlock to Dialogue (review)

I. Introduction

The (in)compatibility of women's human rights and culture is perhaps one of the most enduring and contentious debates to have confronted the human rights movement. Typically framed in terms of whether culture is a legitimate justification for violations of women's human rights, the debate is part of the broader human rights discourse on universalism and cultural relativism. Numerous scholars have sought to move the debate beyond the dichotomous positions of either prioritizing culture and traditional practices over women's human rights or insisting on the implementation of women's human rights at the expense of culture.¹ Approaches advanced to move the debate forward include cross-cultural dialogue, interrogating cultural essentialism, analyzing how cultural discourses are created and reproduced and by whom, highlighting women's internal resistance to patriarchal cultural practices, and exploring women's roles as makers of culture and agents of cultural change.

Women's Human Rights and Culture: From Deadlock to Dialogue, written by Rikki Holtmaat and Jonneke Naber, is a recent contribution to the debate. Building on their earlier research for the Dutch Government, Holtmaat and Naber argue that use of the so-called "cultural defense"² causes severe difficulties for international organizations, governments, and non-governmental organizations advocating implementation of women's human rights.³ The authors suggest that these difficulties arise because those actors usually respond to the defense either by ceasing to advocate for the implementation of women's rights out of deference to and respect for cultural diversity, or insisting on the implementation of women's human rights, as universal legal standards. The authors maintain that both responses, as well as the original enlisting of "culture," are based on essentialist understandings of human rights and culture, which result in a deadlock with each side "firmly locked up in their position of the immutability of culture and/or women's human rights. In this way, a clash or incompatibility between women's human rights and culture is constructed, which leads to . . . no discussion at all."⁴

The authors' thesis is that "fruitful dialogue" about women's human rights and culture is the way out of this deadlock. While acknowledging other means of addressing failures to implement women's human rights—such as submitting communications to UN human rights treaty bodies, pursuing national litigation, and exerting diplomatic pressure—the authors maintain that engaging in "real dialogue about women's human rights and culture is the most effective strategy to stimulate the necessary cultural change that will allow women all over the world to lead a life in which their human rights—including their right to participate in their culture—are respected."⁵

Applying the foundational work of cross-cultural scholars like Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im,⁶ the authors seek to develop a practical "how to" guide that government officials, diplomats, human rights advocates, aid and development workers, and others can use to engage in fruitful dialogue about women's human rights and culture.⁷ According to the authors, Women's Human Rights and Culture is "meant to be very practical, in the sense that it concentrates on the question of how a dialogue can be enhanced or facilitated."⁸ In this way, it is intended primarily for those who are new to the debate or are seeking practical guidance on how to respond to the so-called cultural defense in their day-to-day work. Although the authors envisage a broad audience, the book's original audience, the Dutch Government (a major donor to development and human rights programs in developing countries), carries strongly throughout the book.

II. Reframing the Debate

Holtmaat and Naber argue that the way in which culture is conceptualized influences the advancement of women's human rights. If, on the one hand, culture is presented as static and unchanging, it is a barrier that needs to be removed or abolished in order to achieve the...