Between Culture and Constitution: Evaluating the Cultural Legitimacy of Human Rights in the African State

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 838-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonny Ibhawoh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
African State ◽  
Cultural Legitimacy

China's engagement in Africa: scope, significance and consequences

2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis M. Tull
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
African State ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
International Strategy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Attractive Alternative ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Past ◽  
Debt Cancellation ◽  
Recent Developments

China's vastly increased involvement in Africa over the past decade is one of the most significant recent developments in the region. It appears to contradict the idea of international marginalisation of Africa and brings significant economic and political consequences. China's Africa interest is part of a recently more active international strategy based on multipolarity and non-intervention. Increased aid, debt cancellation, and a boom in Chinese-African trade, with a strategic Chinese focus on oil, have proven mutually advantageous for China and African state elites. By offering aid without preconditions, China has presented an attractive alternative to conditional Western aid, and gained valuable diplomatic support to defend its international interests. However, a generally asymmetrical relationship differing little from previous African–Western patterns, alongside support of authoritarian governments at the expense of human rights, make the economic consequences of increased Chinese involvement in Africa mixed at best, while the political consequences are bound to prove deleterious.

scholarly journals The African State in a Wake of Neoliberal Globalization: A Cog in a Wheel or a Wheel in a Cog

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. p32
Author(s):  
Kizito Michael George
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
African State ◽  
Economic Globalization ◽  
The State ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Neoliberal Globalization ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Political Globalization

This paper situates the Sub-Saharan African state amidst the conflictual interface between the forces of political (Note 1) and economic globalization (Note 2) that have been ushered in the state milieu by neo-liberalism (Note 3). The paper argues that states are situated in an imperialistic globalization with capitalistic economic extirpation as central concern and social justice as a peripheral one. This categorically explicates the persistence of globalised economies and localized oppressive state apparatuses, ideologies and practices. The paper also contends that the forces of economic globalization have superimposed the cultural mantra in the Sub-Saharan Africa state milieu, rendering it virtually impossible to pursue a Rights Based Approach to Development (RBAD). The apparent assault by this globalization from above (economic globalization), continues almost unabated due to absence of an afro centric globalization from below to mitigate the homogenizing effects of economic globalization. Worse still, the inability of political globalization to check the daunting implications of economic globalization using a human rights antidote and the consequent slumber of the glocalisation dialectic in the African state locale explicate the problematic of Africa in the wake of erosion from above (global pillage) and devolution from below.

Cultural Relativism and Human Rights: Reconsidering the Africanist Discourse

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonny Ibhawoh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Cultural Legitimacy ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse

Discussions about cultural relativism and the cross-cultural legitimacy of human rights have been central to contemporary human rights discourse. Much of this discussion has focussed on non-Western societies where scholars have advanced, from a variety of standpoints, arguments for and against the cultural relativism of human rights. Arguments for ‘Asian Values’ and lately, ‘African values’ in the construction of human rights have defined this debate. This paper reviews some of the major arguments and trends in the Africanist discourse on the cultural relativism of human rights. It argues the need to go beyond the polarities that have characterised the debate. It argues that while an Afrocentric conception of human rights is a valid worldview, it need not become the basis for the abrogation of the emerging Universal human rights regime. Rather, it should provide the philosophical foundation for the legitimisation of Universal human rights in the African context and inform the cross-fertilisation of ideas between Africa and the rest of the world.

scholarly journals Mental health in post-genocide Rwanda

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 86-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Palmer ◽  
Nsanzumuhire Firmin
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
African State ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Hiv Aids

The children who experienced the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda are now in their mid to late 20s. It is almost impossible to comprehend the scale of the terror and destruction of Rwanda's societal infrastructure between 6 April and 16 July 1994. While the world remained inactive, Rwanda, a small impoverished central African state, experienced the murder of about 1 million of its citizens; it also saw the terrorising, humiliation and rape of countless thousands. Although women and children were directly targeted, some actively engaged in atrocities. About 300000 children were murdered, a significant number at the hands of other children. The level of terror differed across the country and escape was frequently by luck alone. A UNICEF (2004) study of 3000 children revealed that 80% had experienced death in the family, 70% had witnessed a killing or injury, 35% saw other children killing or injuring other children, 61% were threatened with being killed and 90% believed they would die (Human Rights Watch, 2003). Of the 250000 women raped, 30% were between 13 and 35 years of age, 67% developed HIV/AIDS and 20 000 births resulted (Donovan, 2002).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document