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12 Intercultural Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 71 (2017)
Integrating Human Rights with Local Norms: Ebola, Burial Practices, and the Right to Health in West Africa

handle is hein.journals/ichuman12 and id is 81 raw text is: INTEGRATING HUMAN RIGHTS WITH LOCAL NORMS: EBOLA, BURIAL PRACTICES, AND THE RIGHT TO HEALTH IN WEST AFRICA JULIE FRASER & HENRIKE PRUDON While international rights are intended to apply universally, their interpretation is culturally dependent and implementation contextually defined. Scholars have therefore advocated culturally sensitive approaches to human rights that include local norms in programs for effective implementation. This paper examines such approaches by scholars including Celestine Nyamu-Musembi (2000), Erika George (2008), and Tom Zwart (2012), and explores their application in a case study on the right to health, Ebola, and burial practices in West Africa. As these approaches aim to integrate local norms with universal human rights, their application in a case study enables a critical assessment of whether the coexistence and interaction of different normative orders may help to more effectively implement human rights standards in a given context. Introduction While the issue of human rights universalism and relativism has existed for several decades, a more sophisticated and less dichotomous debate has slowly emerged.' Rather than debating the origin of particular norms or the global foundations of human rights, it is now generally accepted that the universality of rights does not Julie Fraser (B.A., LL.B., LL.M.), Ph.D. Candidate at SIM, Utrecht University, The Netherlands; and Henrike Prudon (B.A., LL.B.), M.Sc. Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. The authors would like to thank Professor Dr. Tom Zwart, Dr. Michael Odhiambo, Dr. Marc Simon Thomas, and Dr. Katrien Klep for their valuable input. We would also like to thank Professor Dr. Cheikh Niang, an expert in the field, for introducing us to this subject-matter. All errors remain with the authors. 1 See Marie-B6ndicte Dembour, Following the Movement of a Pendulum: Between Universalism and Relativism, in CULTURE AND RIGHTS: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES 56, 56 (Jane K. Cowan et al. eds., 2001).

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