A/HRC/4/34 page 8 III. INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN CULTURE AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN A. Introduction 16. In previous reports (E/CN.4/2004/66; E/CN.4/2006/61), I identified culture-based identity politics as a major challenge to the achievement of gender equality and the elimination of violence against women. In this report I aim to further explore this point. 17. Culture can be defined as the set of shared spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of human experience that is created and constructed within social praxis. As such, culture is intimately connected with the diverse ways in which social groups produce their daily existence economically, socially and politically. It therefore embraces both the commonly held meanings that allow for the continuation of everyday practices as well as the competing meanings that galvanize change over time. 18. Across all regions, culture constitutes a primary source of diverse and sometimes contradictory normative systems that provides the rationale for varied patterns of gender roles and identities, which signify relations of power. At the global level, values commonly shared by the international community have been formalized into international human rights law and other instruments, including declarations and policy frameworks. Even though these standards, which include the principle of equality between women and men as a key value, are universally applicable and legally binding, they are inadequately implemented. 19. This is due, on the one hand, to the fact that deepening inequalities between nations, groups and women and men as well as the polarized global power structure have belittled the practical universality of human rights norms and, on the other hand, that the universal legitimacy of human rights norms is increasingly challenged by cultural discourses. The critics assert that international human rights norms are Western in origin and therefore not appropriate in non-Western contexts. This is particularly the case when it comes to women’s human rights, which become compromised, if not totally sacrificed, by assertions of specific cultural practices and claims in many parts of the world.5 Violence against women committed in the name (or guise) of “culture”, “custom”, “tradition” or “religion” continues to be prevalent. Moreover, the very notion of gender inequality is contested when established interpretations of culture or projections of “their” culture are used to justify and excuse acts of discrimination and violence against women, thus undermining the compliance of States with their international human rights obligations. 5 For a review of cultural practices in the family that are violent towards women see the report of Radhika Coomaraswamy, the former Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (E/CN.4/2002/83). For a comprehensive report on violent and/or gender discriminatory practices linked to tradition and religion see Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, Étude sur la liberté de religion ou de conviction et la condition de la femme au regard de la religion et des traditions (E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2, French only).