Cultural relativism and the right to citizenship

الملخص EN

Citizenship is a global yet misunderstood and contested concept.

Citizenship, in its most simple context, directly refers to the state where an individual holds his or her passport.

However, the concept is much deeper and signifies crucial dimensions that have profound effects on human lives.

International law has created certain standards for citizenship, which have been criticized for being influenced by Western ideals with lack of acknowledgment to other vital factors that influence citizenship in other non-Western communities.

This paper argues that international standards for citizenship fail to consider states’ historical and traditional factors, which are important in shaping the concept of citizenship and identity in these communities.

The concept of citizenship differs in its nature, practice, language, and meaning between political communities depending on political, cultural, and historical factors.

The features and struggles of citizenship are characterized by the historical, cultural, and political environments where citizenship is practiced.

Citizenship can only be defined within this context.

This paper tackles the issue through the application of the cultural relativism theory, which is the notion that the beliefs, values, and practices of a person should be understood depending on that person’s culture instead of applying standardized judgments on people equally.

This dissertation essentially argues that even though international law dictates that states cannot use cultural justifications to dodge obligations under international law, however, citizenship should be treated differently.

This is due to the distinctive nature of the right to citizenship and its inevitable connection to culture and tradition.

It is difficult to divide or isolate citizenship from its historical and traditional roots.

This paper uses qualitative, interpretive method to look at perceptions about rights to citizenship among kinship societies.

The findings show how strongly citizens of kinship based communities feel about belonging and the importance of their identity in shaping the meaning of belonging.

Hence, determining citizenship criteria based on kinship considerations is vital in these communities.