CHAPTER 5: NHRIS, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE rights, and women’s issues, specifically addressing the role of NHRIs in matters of tradition, history and culture: It is in this framework of interdependence and careful weighing of relative rights and obligations that NHRIs should address cultural issues in the context of women’s equality rights and ESC rights in particular. [Women’s] inequality …is deeply embedded in tradition, history and culture, including religious attitudes… The subordinate role of women in some countries is illustrated by the high incidence of prenatal sex selection and abortion of female foetuses. States parties should ensure that traditional, historical, religious or cultural attitudes are not used to justify violations of women’s right[s]. States parties should furnish appropriate information on those aspects of tradition, history, cultural practices and religious attitudes which jeopardize, or may jeopardize, compliance with Article 3 [of the ICCPR], and indicate what measures they have taken or intend to take to overcome such factors. (CCPR Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 28: Equality of rights between men and women (Article 3) (29/03/2000. CCPR/C/21/ Rev.1/Add.10, General Comment No. 28). 11 Fribourg Declaration (2007) Women’s active participation in the interpretation of culture was affirmed by an international group of experts in the Fribourg Declaration on Cultural Rights. Women should have an active role in interpreting and communicating their own traditions and cultural perspectives, and to ensure that their voices are given equal weight in understanding history, religion and tradition. Culture and equality can be balanced, rather than placed in opposition. In an equality framework, women are part of the process of defining the delivery of social rights in a culturally sensitive way. NHRIs have an important role in addressing these changes and social attitudes through public education and promotion programs, as well as through their protection mandate. UNCTs can, in turn, support NHRIs by providing NHRIs with basic information about the above documents and their implications for human rights. Despite their interrelatedness, the links between equality and culture – one of the most difficult issues, especially where women’s issues are concerned – received little attention, at least until the early nineties. This has been changing, however, as NHRIs have sought to reframe the issues so as to draw on context and local realities to find innovative solutions to traditional problems, and developed new theoretical perspectives on the topic. NHRIs are playing an important role in navigating these difficult waters. The following case study demonstrates how the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights used a strategy that treated culture as an opportunity for reform rather than an obstacle to progress. CASE STUDY: KENYA NATIONAL COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS16 Conventional wisdom views cultural practices as a key obstacle to the realization of human rights. But recent work of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) demonstrates that in fact many traditional cultures had systems that ensured the protection and care of the most vulnerable members of society such as widows and orphans. These structures and systems have over the years been ignored or manipulated in ways that perpetuate human rights violations. The KNCHR believed there to be a need to revive and encourage cultural structures and practices that can be used to protect the vulnerable in society, especially women and children. There is need to breathe life into known but little used alternative methods and traditional cultural safety nets, which have since time immemorial been used to redress disputes and prevent human rights violations. Using cultural frameworks to address human rights and development is imperative: in spite of the protection offered by national laws and formal institutions, many vulnerable members of society are unable to seek redress from the mainstream legal justice system in their claim for their rights. The formal legal system has by and large worked to the detriment of the vulnerable in society in regard to the protection and enforcement of their human rights. In the case of land for example, which is so critical to securing livelihoods, women’s share of land ownership is a meagre 5%. This section is adapted from Equality for Women: A Handbook for NHRIs on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Equitas (2008). 16 91