Human Rights in Africa: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Abdullahi Ahmed An-naim · Francis M. Deng

Dec 2010 · Brookings Institution Press

About this ebook

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.

About the author

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im was associate professor of law at Khartoum University and is now visiting professor of law at the University of Saskatchewan.

Francis M. Deng is a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies prog