HOMOSEXUALITY, UNIVERSALISM AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM- A REVIEW

Abstract

Homosexuality is one of the most contentious issues of our time. The United Nations and other human rights bodies have proposed that all laws that discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation violate human rights. However, despite this, many countries around the world including Nigeria still maintain laws that object to homosexuality maybe, due to cultural relativism which has raised suggestive ideas, generating diverse perspectives from various segments of the political continuum. Indeed, its proliferation in international relations discourse, has become a concept that is difficult, if not impossible, to apply in contemporary human rights issues. Universalists, clearly object to cultural relativism and cautions about its application in the construction of international norms and doctrines that attempts to define definite human rights. This paper discussed homosexuality, its universal acceptance, if any within the context of human rights with particular interest on cultural relativism, which appears to be the pervasive and biasing influence responsible for the rejection of homosexual rights. In this regard, the paper is heavily biased towards the discussion about sexual orientation as a universal right. The paper concluded that although criminalization of homosexuality violates international human rights norm, cultural relativism is central to its viability, as differences exist endemically between cultures and should be respected.