7.2 Universalism and Cultural Relativism

Universalism: human rights are the same everywhere — the UDHR's claim, reaffirmed at Vienna 1993 ("all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated").Cultural relativism: rights are culturally constructed. The strong version says rights do not apply where the culture rejects them; the weak version only asks for cultural sensitivity in implementation.The test cases: female genital mutilation, forced and child marriage, equal inheritance — in each, the claimed cultural practice met a universal norm, and the universal norm won (the CEDAW Committee's jurisprudence and the national reforms alike).The methodological middle: contextual universality — the core is universal; the margins adapt. Proportionality is the working tool: the state may accommodate culture, but never at the core's expense.Nepal's faces: the reform of harmful practices — chaupadi's prohibition, the criminalisation of witchcraft accusations, dowry's regulation — the women's-rights-versus-culture line of the CEDAW- implementation era.