Call for Papers, Human Rights in Translation, St. Louis, March 31--April 1, 2016
" Human Rights in Translation: Intercultural Pathways" conference at Saint Louis University's Center for Intercultural Studies, St. Louis, March 31--April 1, 2016. When defining human rights, we often invoke certain beliefs--deemed to be universal--on which such rights are based: dignity inherent to every person, common humanity, and natural state of liberty. However, the norms and values of many cultures are incommensurable, or even incompatible, with these "universal" principles. One way out of this quandary, rooted in the concept of organic wholeness of humanity, has been to call for a convergence of world cultures around the universal idea of human rights, presumed to be shared by all people at a "deeper" level. The problem with this view is that homogenizing world cultures implies eradicating their diversity, in itself a denial of the right to uphold one's culture. Another solution has been to acknowledge the cultural differences in interpr...
