Reconciling Cultural Diversity and International Human Rights Obligations

This book offers an original approach to the theoretical debate between universalists and relativists in terms of human rights and cultural diversity. Michael Addo demonstrates how a distinct legal standard of human rights exists from over half a century of practice in the international human rights institutions, and that this legal approach recognizes the complimentarity between modern human rights norms and cultural diversity. Referring to this as the compatibility approach, the book shows how these institutions have successfully developed standards and principles for reconciling cultural diversity with universal human rights ideals set out in international human rights law.