Human Rights in Translation: Intercultural Pathways

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This volume reflects on what happens when the idea and practice of universal human rights cross the cultural borders between different communities of knowledge. Although such rights are usually presumed to be founded on certain globally shared beliefs, the norms and values of many cultures are often incommensurable with these "universal" principles, and hence the need to translate and vernacularize them. Any law that would successfully institutionalize them must frame human rights in a way that defers to the historically constituted cultural capital of the society in which it is to function. The essays in this book seek to illuminate different cognitive contexts that produce different meanings of rights, identify spaces of intercultural crossings where differences can coexist, and offer usable narratives and metaphors that could help mediate between distinct cultures. They show that the path forward does not lead through a unified theory of human rights that can be applied globally, nor through mere repackaging of rights in a more understandable language. What is needed is a deep understanding of the process of intercultural dialogue, the cultural "grammar" involved in relationships of difference.

Reviews

This volume provides a nuanced look at the intercultural complexities which ariseand the translations and dialogue necessarywhen Western Enlightenment-infused notions of universal human rights traverse cultural and nation-state borders, especially in the spaces and contexts of the postcolonial non-West. The theoretical deliberations in the book are illuminated through current and historical case studies from across the world. These cases delve into the intersections of the universal and the local and highlight the inclusive possibilities that could emerge in the third spaces of being and knowing. By weaving together the knotty threads of the legal, policy-level, and cultural debates between individualism and individual rights, collectivism, differing cultural and societal perceptions regarding human rights and duties, and the need to protect human dignity as well as to respect cultural diversity, this volume keenly reminds us of the necessity of these debates in our world so interconnected yet fraught with violence and social injustices stemming from religious conflict, migration, the flow of refugees, gender politics, and other pressing transnational issues. -- Nilanjana Bardhan, Southern Illinois University
Notably since 1945 the discourse of human rights has become global, but what does this mean in the different contexts (conceptual, social, political, legal) in which the idea has been taken up How do ideas forged in a specific WesternEuropean and transatlantictradition translate (literally and metaphorically) when crossing cultures What happens if and when they do And how should scholars and practitioners think about these phenomena This valuable interdisciplinary collection, with its wide-ranging theoretical chapters and empirical case studies, draws on contemporary thinking about interculturality and intercultural dialogue, and brings a refreshingly new and illuminating approach to issues which, as the editor says, admit of no easy solution. -- Ralph Grillo, University of Sussex

Author Bio

Michal Jan Rozbicki is professor of history at Saint Louis University.