A/HRC/16/37 D. Opportunities and challenges: practical approaches 44. The panel was devoted to a discussion of opportunities and challenges for the implementation of human rights in a culturally diverse world. 45. Tom Zwart, law professor at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, focused on the perspective of the “receptor theory” as a practical approach to promote the implementation of international human rights standards in local contexts. According to the approach, international human rights norms and local cultural practices could and should mutually reinforce each other. 46. Mr. Zwart challenged the misconception that international human rights norms required States to embrace Western values. Adherence to human rights did not necessarily require ascribing to a Western liberal conception of human rights or considering it to be superior to other conceptions. The international human rights regime was binding on States, not because this was prescribed by a particular philosophy but because it was grounded in positive law: the obligations of States in the area of human rights were legal commitments that resulted from the treaties they had signed up to rather than moral ones. All State parties, regardless of their philosophical views on human rights, had to live up to the human rights obligations to which they had committed. To the extent this legal regime allowed them, they could remain loyal to their own philosophical convictions. 47. Mr. Zwart referred to the assumption that, in order to implement international human rights obligations, States had no other option than to turn them into enforceable rights within their domestic sphere. He maintained that, unless indicated otherwise, States were free to choose their own social arrangements to implement international human rights obligations. Under international law, States enjoyed discretion with regard to the implementation of treaty obligations within the national order. As long as they met the obligations laid down in the respective treaties, they may choose the most appropriate way of doing so at the domestic level, including through the arrangements that already existed when the State signed up to the treaty. Therefore, non-western States can implement treaty obligations without using rights, but by relying on other social arrangements that fit better into their culture and traditions, as long as they meet the standards laid down in the treaties. In these cultures, human rights treaty obligations were pursued through other, non-legal means, such as kinship, group solidarity, respect, restraint, duties and beliefs. 48. Mr. Zwart then outlined the “receptor theory”, which assumed that States could and should rely on local cultural practices to implement international human rights obligations. The receptor approach consisted of three elements: legitimacy; cultural fluidity; and indigenous reform. 49. Legitimacy consisted of respect for and acknowledgement of the equality of every culture. The receptor approach accepted the legitimacy of implementing treaty obligations by putting in place social arrangements, including traditional ones, other than law and rights. The assumption was that, like rational-secular value systems, traditional systems were aimed at achieving fairness and human dignity. Cultural fluidity meant making these social arrangements visible. By acquiring these insights, those applying the receptor approach could assist in mapping the way in which State parties met their treaty obligations through local social arrangements. Academics, policymakers, activists and international monitoring bodies could therefore get a better picture of the efforts being made to implement human rights treaty obligations. Indigenous reform required mapping the social institutions that were in place to meet human rights obligations to guide those who believed that human rights required local reform. The receptor approach was based on the idea that reforms should add to but not replace existing social arrangements. It opposed the introduction of foreign notions into customary law if local remedies could be found which, 11