Cultural idiosyncrasies: harmful cultural practices affecting the rights of women and children
Abstract
This thesis approaches the sensitive topic of Harmful Cultural Practices, affecting the rights
of women and children. The importance of also discussing women’s rights in these
situations lies upon the fact that, most of these practices are directed to girls, which puts
them into vulnerable situations. Moreover, it is possible to apprehend that, the International
Community’s attention has been rising when referring to these practices. Namely, because
there is a possible tension between culture and human rights that on the one hand questions
the universality of human rights and the concept of respect, advocated for on the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights; on the other hand it questions the concept of culture, the
understanding of cultural rights and cultural life. The settlement of this tension is only
possible, after the understanding of the concepts above mentioned, and others, coupled with
the analysis of international and regional laws, in order to gather legal information on the
matter and observe the international community’s understanding and position on harmful
cultural practices.
This thesis is accordingly divided into four main chapters, plus introduction and
conclusion, those being: Protecting Universality, Respecting Cultural Values; Legal
Framework - International and Regional Legislation; Particular cases of Harmful Practices
and Possible Approaches. Therefore, based on findings , it could be perceived that there is
in fact, no sufficient clarification on the distinction between injurious and non-injurious
practices, just as the existent legislation comes over as non- sufficient to prevent or
eradicate such acts. Thereby, the drafting of a document that is fully dedicated to the
understanding of harmful and non-harmful cultural practices was suggested, as well as the
prevention, or in extreme cases, the eradication of injurious practices that interfere with
human rights.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/20.500.11825/925Collections
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