A Comparative Analysis of the Approaches of the International Human Rights System and the Islamic Republic of Iran towards Cultural Diversity

One of the problems in the codification of human rights around the world is the relationship with cultural diversity and worldviews in different societies and legal systems. Naturally, there are different cultures and worldviews in human societies, and human rights will be able to have universality when it can cope with different cultures and worldviews and, while accepting them without digesting them, people of all cultures and worldviews. As a result, indigenous cultures must be considered in human rights issues, and those criteria which are based solely on Western culture, traditions, and philosophy should not be considered universal. In the present analytical-comparative article, the approaches of the international human rights system and also the Islamic Republic of Iran towards cultural diversity and pluralism is examined. The results of the present study show that without respect for different values and cultures in different geographical areas, both developed and developing, such as Iran, we cannot see the realization of universal human rights. In fact, human rights, by their very nature, should not know time and place, and naturally seem to transcend geographical, ideological, and cultural boundaries; But the truth is that rights enshrined in the name of human rights take on different forms depending on the different social and cultural characteristics of the societies in which they are defined.