Human Rights in Africa: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

By Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide Francis Mading Deng and Abd Allah Ahmad Na'im

Book Overview

This powerful volume challenges the conventional view that the concept of human rights is peculiar to the West and, therefore, inherently alien to the non-Western traditions of third world countries.
This book demonstrates that there is a contextual legitimacy for the concept of human rights. Virginia A. Leary and Jack Donnelly discuss the Western cultural origins of international human rights; David Little, Bassam Tibi, and Ann Elizabeth Mayer explore Christian and Islamic perspectives on human rights; Rhoda E. Howard, Claude E. Welch, Jr., and James C. N. Paul examine human rights in the context of the African nation-state; Kwasi Wiredu, James Silk, and Francis M. Deng offer African cultural perspectives; and Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im and Richard D. Schwartz discuss prospects for a cross-cultural approach to human rights.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815717954
• ISBN13: 9780815717959
• Release Date: August 1990
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A very good collection of essays, with an agenda of course

An excellent collection of essays trying to deal with the dynamic of universalism versus relativism - A must read if your are interested in Africa and human rights in a more intellectual sense ( as opposed to pure implementation)