International Human Rights in Post-Colonial Africa - Universality in Perspective

This study advances three interrelated claims for international human rights standards (IHRS). First, that post-colonial African societies are bureaucratic modern states and capitalist societies to which IHRS are suitable for application, pursuant to the Modified Modernisation Theory. The sweeping vicissitudes that have taken place in post-colonial Africa since colonial eras necessitate a paradigm shift: we must change our assumptions about the structural and socio-politico-economic systems of post-colonial Africa and their impact on individual and group rights. Second, that extant pleadings for cultural relativism in post-colonial Africa are fixated on reified assumptions about the minimal role of the individual. Today, however, every state relies on its individual subjects for its institutional and socio-politico-economic development, just as every individual relies on the state for a more secure, fulfilling and dignified human existence. Finally, the book advances legal and moral justifications for the universality of human rights standards, notwithstanding global cultural heterogeneity.

About the author

Santino Ayuel Longar Dau is an assistant professor and director of the Law Development Center at the School of Law, University of Juba, South Sudan.

Product details

• Authors: Santino Ayuel Longar Dau
• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.01.2024
• EAN: 9781837720668
• ISBN: 978-1-83772-066-8
• No. of pages: 288
• Series: International Law
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Modern era up to 1918; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Comparative and international political science; Post, international, Human, Human Rights, perspective, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, Africa, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / African, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Civil Rights, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Violence in Society, Colonialism & imperialism, Rights, DAU, Political structures: totalitarianism and dictatorship, Colonialism and imperialism, Violence in society, Civil rights & citizenship, Human rights, civil rights, colonial, Political structures: totalitarianism & dictatorship, Violence and abuse in society, universality, Santino, Ayuel, Longar