The Implicit Multicultural Discourse: Are Human Rights Treaty Bodies Supporting Multiculturalism?

Multiculturalism is an emerging notion within human rights discourse based on unity in diversity. It is usually admitted that human rights is in favor of difference and diversity, and this was clearly affirmed during the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. However, even though the idea of multiculturalism has been developed in political science and philosophy, the legal discourse regarding multiculturalism remains very limited. Usually, human rights treaty bodies and international and regional tribunals are reluctant to use the term. One of the reasons is the lack of a precise legal definition. The paper proposes to explore: how human rights law is in favor of multiculturalism though it never specifically refers to it, the definitional problem and how the notion of legal pluralism is preferred to multiculturalism, the advantage in the recognition of multiculturalism from a legal perspective.