The Cultural Grounding of Human Rights in Contemporary Arab Thought

Abstract

Every culture develops its own conception—and indeed multiple conceptions—of human rights. Historically, the recognition of human rights has been mediated through the cognitive symbols and value systems specific to each culture. The intrinsic validity of an idea alone is insufficient to ensure its acceptance within a given society. Rather, societies often require cultural reference points that provide a sense of legitimacy and reassurance for concepts that have not emerged from their own historical struggles and internal transformations. By "culture," we do not merely refer to the dominant culture of a particular time and place; instead, we refer to the rich reservoir of intellectual and symbolic resources that acknowledges the coexistence of a dominant culture with countercultures and alternative cultural traditions in every historical period. Likewise, every cultural heritage exists alongside competing and opposing traditions. Consequently, comprehensive cultural relativism constitutes the primary methodological principle for any study that takes culture as its object of inquiry