Morocco and the Convention Against Torture

Brian Whitaker considers the arguments in Osire Glacier’s new book, “Universal Rights, Systemic Violations, and Cultural Relativism in Morocco.”

by Brian Whitaker

International human rights law has often been characterised as a product of colonialism and cultural imperialism. In the words of Makau Mutua, a Kenya-born professor of law: "The west was able to impose its philosophy of human rights on the rest of the world because it dominated the United Nations at its inception."

Historically, there is a degree of truth in this. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted in the aftermath of the Second World War, partly in response to wartime atrocities, with the countries that had emerged victorious taking the lead.