A/HRC/22/71 and non-indigenous segments of society to a significant extent, leading to acquiescence to these destructive power dynamics between the stronger and weaker elements of society. 62 44. The negative impact of traditional practices arises not only in non-Western countries. The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, warned against mystifying and reducing non-Western culture to its symbolic, ritualized or supposedly “traditional” manifestations.63 C. Application of traditional values in the implementation of human rights 45. Strategies to promote human rights and eliminate harmful practices can be more effective if they use the positive elements of traditional values as a basis for their arguments. Certain East Asian traditions, for example, may be effective in enhancing respect for human rights at the regional level. If the ultimate aim of human rights diplomacy is to persuade others of the value of human rights, then this is an argument more likely to be won if it builds on, rather than challenges, local cultural traditions. Building human rights practices on traditional values is more likely to lead to long-term commitment to human rights ideas and practices through the building of ownership of those norms.64 46. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women acknowledged that such an approach revalidates and harnesses the positive elements of local culture, stating that successfully upholding universal values requires systematic engagement in a “cultural negotiation” whereby positive cultural elements are emphasized and oppressive elements in culture-based discourses are demystified. Contrary to what some may claim or fear, such an engagement with culture did not erode or deform local culture, but rather challenged its discriminatory or oppressive aspects. She added that negotiating culture with human rights concerns contributed to harnessing the positive elements of local culture to advance human rights and gender equality, a process that also revalidated culture itself.65 47. While noting that, as cultural relativist discourses strengthen, “we need unashamedly to invoke universal human rights and defend the principles for which women around the world have struggled with more pride, not less”, 66 the Special Rapporteur provided a number of examples in which women’s rights activists had successfully mobilized artistic and symbolic expressions of culture, including local women’s movements in the north of Mexico incorporating human rights language with symbolic actions to counter a culture of impunity and violence against women; women in France dressing as “Marianne”, the iconic symbol of French liberation, to draw attention to gender violence; and a meeting in Cairo of a group of Islamic scholars, who issued a set of recommendations recognizing female genital mutilation as a “deplorable inherited custom” incompatible with their understanding of Islamic teachings.67 48. Human rights and traditional values may interface in various ways. The international instruments that protect human rights and the conventions and recommendations of the International Labour Organization have promoted social dialogue as a means to strengthen human dignity and the freedom of workers. In this way, traditional values may be vehicles for promoting and implementing human rights. 62 63 64 65 66 67 14 A/HRC/18/35/Add.5, para. 67. A/HRC/4/34, para. 46. Daniel Bell, “The East Asian Challenge to Human Rights: Reflections on an East West Dialogue”, Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 18, August 1996. A/HRC/4/34, paras. 52-53. Ibid., para. 56. Ibid., paras. 53-55.