Universality, Diversity and Legal Certainty: Cultural Diversity in the Dialogue between the CEDAW and States Parties

It is broadly accepted that the universal value and application of international human rights norms does not imply a uniform implementation of these rights, thereby leaving room for local and culture specific implementation at the national level. The question remains, however, what the precise scope of that room is or should be. A common criticism of allowing for cultural diversity in the implementation of international human rights law is that it leads to relativism and to a lack of sufficient clarity and predictability of the norms, undermining legal certainty as a constitutive element of the rule of law. It could, however, also be argued that a certain amount of flexibility allowing for cultural diversity is inherent in the international legal human rights system and is not detrimental to legal certainty.
This chapter analyses the room for variation in implementation based on cultural differences, as well as the process of determining this room by states parties and the treaty-monitoring bodies. It analyses the dialogue as regards the elaboration of the normative content of the provisions, and the process of the dialogue itself. Both dimensions of content and process are linked to the principle of legal certainty.