Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: To reconsider the international legal approach to ‘harmful’ cultural practices, this thesis questions the approach of international human rights law (IHRL) to clashes between harm protection and cultural practices. In doing so three case studies are enlisted, female genital cutting (FGC), male circumcision (MC), and whaling. The three case studies are analysed through a soft cultural relativist lens by way of socio-legal literature review. The necessity of this research is found in the critique made by the cultural relativist school of thought which problematises IHRL as a Western artefact. The Western philosophical roots of the human rights movement and the influence of key Western figures in the history of modern IHRL systems serve as evidence to support the criticisms waged by cultural relativism. As a result, the current legal structures favour Western ways of thinking. FGC is a practice that has been banned by international law, MC is subject to State sovereignty, and whaling exemplifies a mid-point between the two. The originality of the thesis is found in the use of animal law to analyse this already controversial area of literature. The mid-point between FGC and MC is found in the exception to the commercial ban on whaling, Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling, which allows for cultural whaling to take place under controlled circumstances for cultural purposes. This exemplifies what is referred to in the thesis as the collaborative model, an example of hybridity, which is employed by the International Whaling Commission to facilitate a central role for indigenous peoples in the regulations of their own practice. The thesis proposes the collaborative model ought to be adopted when international law seeks to address a potentially harmful cultural practice. Thus, people from the cultures in question must be central to the decision making and monitoring process.
Author: Eisen, Dara E
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7208798799