Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: A Quest for Consensus (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)

Human rights violations are perpetrated in all parts of the world, and the universal reaction to such atrocities is overwhelmingly one of horror and sadness. Yet, as Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im and his contributors attest, our viewpoint is clouded and biased by the expectations native to our own culture. How do other cultures view human rights issues? Can an analysis of these issues through multiple viewpoints, both cross-cultural and indigenous, help us reinterpret and reconstruct prevailing theories of human rights?

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University and the editor of Human Rights Under African Constitutions, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.