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| Julie Fraser PhD Candidate Receptor Approach |
Campaigns to combat HIV/AIDS and to remove the stigma
that patients often face have not always been effective. The assumption upon
which this Seminar is based is that the effectiveness of human rights
protections may be enhanced by relying on local culture. While
not dealing directly with the topic of combatting HIV/AIDS, this paper discusses
the legal issues surrounding the use of culture to protect international human
rights. The central question addressed is whether
it is permissible under public international law for States to utilize culture
- or other social institutions - to protect domestic human rights and uphold
their international obligations?
The
Receptor Approach seeks to accommodate “non-Western” methods of human rights protection within
public international law. The Approach identifies pre-existing social
institutions – such as culture or traditional medicine - that can be relied
upon by the State to meet its international human rights obligations. The
Receptor Approach works from the premise that human rights may be implemented –
and even more effectively implemented - through non-legal means like social
institutions.
This
paper contends that States are not always obliged to legally incorporate
international human rights treaties, and that they have discretion in
implementation. When considering such measures of implementation, the focus is
not on the method adopted but on their efficacy. Therefore, it is submitted
that, subject to certain conditions, there is scope within the UN system for
the Receptor Approach to implementation of human rights obligations.
