We live in an era where both globalization and universalization of international legal discourse have become progressively dominant. On one hand these developments open up new political and socio-economic potentials for the world. On the other hand they stimulate further tensions between the global and the local. In particular, these tensions strongly affect the ability to implement international human rights, which have become strongly institutionalized by now. Sally Merry's book Human rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice provides a valuable analysis of this theme. In fact, this book does much more that merely identifying these tensions; through a study of the translation of women rights from global into local contexts, Merry examines origins of the existing conflict between the two and presents suggestions for more effective approaches to cultural implications when dealing with the complexity of transnational struggle against human rights abuses.
As expected from a legal anthropologist, Merry combines international law and an ethnographic perspectives in her study of global activism, which characterized by its secular universalistic view, in relation to local realization and "vernacularization", done mainly by NGOs and activist on grass root level. In the beginning of her book she sketches out her (ethnographic) research method, which included attendance of several international conferences, background reading, three years of thorough study of United Nations meetings, extended research in Hawaii, relatively short visits of the Asia-Pacific region in Fiji, India, China, Hong Kong where she had the opportunity to interview local academics and activists. From a purely anthropological perspective Merry's approach could have been stronger if she had stayed for longer periods in different localities simply because her understanding of the subject would have had more time to develop. In addition, the view of one particular group most directly involved in the matter is not sufficiently discussed in this study, namely that of the victims of gender violence. Nevertheless, Merry's nuanced style and the use of geographic diversity add value to her engaging research.
Merry argues that although women's rights have been internationally formulated, the conceptualization of these rights remain problematic. Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women came in 1979. Next to Commission on Human Rights, the UN took specific measures though appointing the Special Reporter on Violence against Women and establishing the Commission on the Status of Women. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to establish gender violence as human rights violations, because it is often perceived as "daily problem", incorporated in system of kinship, religion, welfare and nationalism. Gender violence either occurs in private sphere which makes it shielded from interference from outside or is packed in various concepts that are protected by the society, such as the practice of honor killings in Pakistan (p. 63). Even tough Merry strongly opposes such practices; she stresses the importance of understanding of particular histories, traditions and cultures.
Two main reasons are pointed out. First, generally unrecognized reason that the global human rights discourse established by state representatives and NGOs is narrow because of the uneven power relations that shaped it, and should therefore also be seen as part of a certain culture system, secular transitional modernity. Second, politicians and experts see customs as harmful practices and completely reject them, for they do not have the time to investigate how costumes can help protecting human rights. Merry explores the practice of Bulubulu in her research and uses it as an example to illustrate her point. Bulubulu, central in village life of Fiji, is a practice of reconciliation through apology and gift giving for an offence. It is a fundamentally different approach, with emphasis on reconciliation and avoiding vengeance, rather than punishing and deterring future offenders. The main goal is to restore peace in the community life. This local practice became embedded in the Fiji court system (customary law), but faced complete rejection by the UN committee of CEDAW, because of the relatively new use of Bulubulu in cases of rape (p.144).
Merry stresses the importance of contextualization of human rights strategies in order to be successful. Three forms of transnational cultural flow necessary for appropriation of human rights are distinguished. First, Merry emphasizes something that also Ignatieff argued in his article Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry, Praemium Erasmianum: it is crucial that transnational consensus is built, but it is only possible if consistency is maintained, especially by more influential Western states like the US. Second, transnational program transplantation must be done with use of local values, symbols and meanings through strengthening the national and local culture practices. An Na'im argues in the same direction when talking about human rights appropriation of Sharia in Areas of Expressions and the Universality of Human Rights: Mediation a Contingent Relationship. Last but not least, it is essential to localize transnational knowledge of human rights so that it becomes part of the local consciousness (p.179). Merry argues that international actors and local activist can form a link between the global and the local. Grass root activists can translate and negotiate the rights into frameworks that are relevant to the life situation of local people.
It would have been indeed like this if all grass root human rights activists truly represented the mainstream societies they live in; in reality, their beliefs are often strongly influenced by the global discourse. In addition, Merry tends to underestimate "harmful" practices and the resistance against the international human rights discourses. Traditions and customs are indeed not homogeneous and dynamic; it does not mean however that power holders in existing kinship, religious and cultural entities will easily allow significant change that would threaten their privileged position. While it is especially relevant in women rights and gender violence, Merry is eager to nuance here too strongly. Besides, as one of the case studies presented by Merry shows, women are "slow" to claim their rights (p.181). Reconsidering and contextualizing is undeniably necessary, but we might run into bigger obstacles than expected.
