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CHAPTER FOUR
CULTURE, GLOBALIZATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS
INTRODUCTION
Culture may form part of human rights as everyone has the right to culture.
However, some cultural practices pose greater danger to the implementation of universal human rights
standards.
On the other hand, globalization facilitates and at the same time hinders the implementation of human rights
standards
4.1. CULTURE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Since the end of the cold war, the international community has entered into a period of incredible global
transition that has created many social problems.
The growing imbalance in wealth coincides with an alarming increase in violence, poverty and
unemployment, homelessness, displaced persons and increasing environmental instability: the world has
also witnessed a severe global economic recession.
Cultural background is one of the primary sources of identity.
It is a major source of self-definition, expression, and sense of group belonging.
As cultures interact and intermix, cultural identities change.
4.2. UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM
A. CULTUR AL RELATIVISM
Cultural relativism is the assertion that human values, far from being universal, vary a great deal according
to different cultural perspectives.
Some would apply this relativism to the promotion, protection, interpretation and application of human
rights which could be interpreted differently within different cultural, ethnic and religious traditions.
In other words, according to this view, human rights are culturally relative rather than universal.
If cultural tradition alone governs State's compliance with international standards then widespread
disregard., abuse and violation of human rights would be given legitimacy
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Accordingly, the promotion and protection of human rights perceived as culturally relative would only be
subject to State discretion, rather than international legal imperative.
B. UNIVERS AL HUM AN R IGHTS AND INTERNATIO NAL LAW
Although virtually all governments have, on various occasions, acknowledged the universality of human
rights and the right of the international community to concern itself with their observance, not all human
rights are considered in practice to be universally accepted.
During the Cold War there was an ideologically slanted debate in which traditional notions of sovereignty
and non-intervention were frequently invoked regarding the rights of whole societies in contrast to
individual rights, and social and economic rights in contrast to political and civil rights.
Human rights are emphasized among the purposes of the United Nations as proclaimed in its Charter, which
states that human rights are "for all without distinction".
Human rights are the natural-born rights for every human being, universally. They are not privileges.
The international consensus that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated
means that political, civil, cultural, economic and social human rights are to be seen in their entirety.
All Member States of the United Nations have a legal obligation to promote and protect human rights,
regardless of particular cultural perspectives.
Everyone is entitled to human rights without discrimination of any kind. The non-discrimination principle is
a fundamental rule of international law.
C. A C ULTUR AL CONTEX T: - C ULTUR AL RELATIVISM
The argument of cultural relativism frequently includes or leads to the assertion that traditional culture is
sufficient to protect human dignity, and therefore universal human rights are unnecessary.
Furthermore, the argument continues, universal human rights can be intrusive and disruptive to traditional
protection of human life, liberty and security.
When traditional culture does effectively provide such protection, then human rights by definition would be
compatible, posing no threat to the traditional culture.
As such, the traditional culture can absorb and apply human rights, and the governing State should be in a
better position not only to ratify, but to effectively and fully implement, the international standards.
4.3, GLOBALIZATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Globalization, is a comprehensive term for the emergence of a global society in which economic, political,
environmental, and cultural events in one part of the world quickly come to have significance for people in
other parts of the world.
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Globalization is the result of advances in communication, transportation, and information technologies.
It describes the growing economic, political, technological, and cultural linkages that connect individuals,
communities, businesses, and governments around the world.
Globalization also involves the growth of multinational corporations (businesses that have operations or
investments in many countries) and transnational corporations (businesses that see themselves
functioning in a global marketplace).
THE INSTITUTIONS OF GLOB ALIZ ATION
Three key institutions helped shape the current era of globalization: the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
the World Bank (WB), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
All three institutions trace their origins to the end of World War II (1939-1945) when the United States and
the United Kingdom decided to set up new institutions and rules for the global economy.
A. THE WORLD BANK
Following Europe's postwar recovery the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
became known as the World Bank.
Its mission was redirected to help developing countries grow faster and provide a higher living
standard for their people.
The World Bank made loans to developing countries for dams and other electrical-generating plants, harbor
facilities, and other large projects
These projects were intended to lower costs for private businesses and to attract investors.
Beginning in 1968 the World Bank focused on low-cost loans for health, education, and other basic needs of
the world's poor.
B. INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
The IMF makes loans so that countries can maintain the value of their currencies and repay foreign debt.
The programs are based on a strategy called neo-liberalism, also known as the Washington Consensus
because both the IMF and the World Bank are headquartered in Washington, D.C.
The strategy is geared toward promoting free markets including privatization (the selling off of
government enterprises); deregulation (removing rules that restrict companies); and trade liberalization
(opening local markets to foreign goods by removing barriers to exports and imports).
Finally, the strategy also calls for shrinking the role of government, reducing taxes, and cutting back on
publicly provided services.
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C. WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
Another key institution shaping globalization is the World Trade Organization (WTO), which traces its
origins to a 1948 United Nations (UN) conference in Havana, Cuba.
The conference called for the creation of an International Trade Organization to lower tariff’s (taxes on
imported goods) and to encourage trade.
Since its creation, the WTO has increased the scope of trading agreements.
Such agreements no longer involve only the trade of manufactured products.
Today agreements involve services, investments, and the protection of intellectual property rights, such as
patents and copyrights.
The United States receives over half of its international income from patents and royalties for use of
copyrighted material.
The advocates of globalization give philosophical justifications to accept export-led growth, lower wages
and living standards for workers, shrinking government budgets, and extremely high interest rates.
They say "There Is No Alternative" - TINA, the phrase coined by British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher in 1980s.
Powerful institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) raise the TINA, argument to persuade the developing nations to qualify themselves to
borrow money.
The developing countries are left into no option but to accept the liberalization and market-oriented
reforms;
GLOBALIZATION, DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The relation between globalization, development and human rights raises policy and legal questions.
One such question is whether globalization of market-oriented economic system is essential for
development and protection of human rights?
Human rights have become an integral part of the process of globalization in many ways.
The Western countries are increasingly using their view of human rights concept as a yardstick to judge
developing countries and to deal with economic and trade relations to extend development assistance.
At the same time globalization intensifies impoverishment by increasing the poverty, insecurity,
fragmentation of society and thus violates human rights and human dignity of millions of people.
Development or economic development is widely perceived as a historical process that takes place in almost
all societies characterized by economic growth and increased production and consumption of goods and
services.
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But, in today's globalization, the concept of development itself is interpreted differently and the concept of
right to development is not taken seriously.
DEVELOPMENT AID AND HUMAN RIGHTS
It has long been accepted by the UN and in most international forums that “developed countries” should
provide aid in the form of grants and loans to the developing countries.
The General Assembly has, by consensus resolutions, called for such development aid to reach 0.7 per cent
of the GNP of developed countries.
Actually less than half of that target has been attained. For example, the US gives only less than 0.2 per
cent, instead of 0.7 per cent.
The developing states emphasize their primary responsibility for development of the country and their
right to self-determination in respect of the economy and resources;
Donor countries tend to emphasize their narrow concepts of human rights as a prerequisite to sanction
development assistance;
They also emphasize the pragmatic political fact that aid is not likely to be provided if the beneficiary states
violated basic human rights.
TRADE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Global trade is being liberalized and opened up in this era of globalization. A set of new rules and
regulations have been promoted through international firms like WTO and new initiatives have been taken
through the formation of regional economic trading blocs.
At the same time several developed countries in the world have been trying to inter-relate trade policy with
human rights policy.
Under mounting pressure from the business lobby, several Western governments have altered their policies
depending up on their business interests.
The Transnational Corporations (TNCs) which have gained strength in the post-globalization era is the
main actor in several developed countries in formulating new foreign policies to shape: new global order;
This trend has been highlighted in a recent study that the emerging global order is spearheaded by a few
hundred corporate giants, many of them bigger than most sovereign nations.
By acquiring earth-spanning technologies, by developing products that can be produced anywhere and sold
everywhere, by spreading credit around the world, and by connecting global channels of communication
that can penetrate any village or neighborhood, these institutions we normally think of as economic rather
than political, private rather than public, are becoming the world empires of the twenty-first century.
The impact of these global giant's operations have negative impact on human rights.
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Virtually all developing countries at the present time seek private foreign investment for development.
Such investment now greatly exceeds loans or grants from official sources.
The growth of Transnational Corporations - now numbering about 35,000 with 150,000 foreign affiliates -
is evidence of the increased role of the private sector and of market economies in developing countries;
New technologies have transformed the nature of production and facilitated re-location of firms.
Nationalization, once the center of debate, has now virtually disappeared from the agenda of developing
countries.
IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Globalization has both negative and, positive aspects.
Among the negative aspects are the rapid spread of diseases, illicit drugs, crime, terrorism, and uncontrolled
migration.
Among globalization's benefits are a sharing of basic knowledge, technology, investments, resources, etc.
