Ensuring cultural diversity, a hallmark of a democratic society, is a crucial challenge for today’s society. If culture is understood as the set of distinctive elements of a spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional nature that characterise a social group at a given historical moment and that include, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions, beliefs and religion, it cannot be ignored, however, that culture is also sometimes invoked as a justification for the implementation of harmful traditional practices (e.g. female genital mutilation, early or forced marriages, unilateral divorces and other discriminatory or harmful practices, particularly towards women or girls) and the application of rules, prescribed in customary or religious law, that actually or potentially conflict with the protection of human rights.
This volume examines the public and private international law issues involved in the complex balancing between the two needs of, on the one hand, protecting cultural diversity and different cultural identities and, on the other, protecting human rights in cases where their respect is jeopardised by the implementation of these practices or by the application of these precepts. The aim of the book is to outline – with a transversal approach, which distinguishes it as original and innovative compared to other studies that alternatively focus on public or private international law, or on specific practices – solutions that are legally sound and adequate to protect the human rights involved and to reconcile the different needs at stake, as well as suitable for preserving and disseminating a multicultural approach to law, functional to protecting cultural diversity and safeguarding its essential value