Integrating Human Rights with Local Norms: Ebola, Burial Practices and the Right to Health in West Africa

Abstract

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.