A/67/287 • Is the label of culture being deployed to stifle a desirable and necessary political debate? 69. As previously stated by the Special Rapporteur, identifying exactly which cultural practices should be considered as being contrary to human rights is not always a simple task. It requires policies that unequivocally support an informed, open and participatory debate within all societies and communities so that cultural norms and practices detrimental to the enjoyment of human rights can be challenged. It also requires an independent judiciary able to adopt an informed decision on the basis of an explicitly human rights legal framework, and taking into consideration international human rights law and practice. 70. Cultural diversity is not to be confused with cultural relativism. The cultural diversity within a community and within each individual is at least as important as diversities across communities. These diversities must be vigorously respected, protected and promoted, for they are the kernels of a democratic order. In this regard, it must be remembered that despite the paucity of interaction between States and female citizens in many countries and areas of life, the State is a crucial source of legitimacy for women’s cultural rights. 71. The reality of intra-community diversity makes it vital to ensure that all voices within a community are heard without discrimination in terms of representing the interests, desires and perspectives of that particular community. Women must be equally empowered to decide the criteria for, and conditions of, belonging to communities of shared cultural values, and to decide the normative content of values and the contours and context of practices that respect, protect and promote their human dignity. V. Conclusion and recommendations A. Conclusions 72. The effective implementation of human rights standards requires measures that transform legislation into reality. 73. Human rights are always implemented and enjoyed within specific local cultural and socioeconomic conditions. They have to be realized within, and are thus contingent upon, the factors and dynamics operative on the ground, including local knowledge and practices, and specific cultural traditions, values and norms. Ensuring the cultural rootedness of human rights, in particular women’s cultural rights, requires ownership of internationally established human rights among all communities. Human rights have to be “vernacularized”, 59 including through “initiatives that ground human rights concepts in diverse cultural traditions, in a culturally relevant lexicon and __________________ 59 20 See, for example, P. Levitt and S. E. Merry, “Vernacularization on the Ground: Local Uses of Global Women’s Rights in Peru, China, India and the United States”, Global Networks, vol. 9, No. 4 (October 2009), pp. 441-461 and M. Goodale, “Locating Rights: Envisioning Law Between the Global and the Local”, in The Practice of Human Rights: Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local, M. Goodale and S. E. Merry, eds. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007). 12-45930