Decolonizing Human Rights Law: A Qualitative Study of Indigenous Legal Perspectives
Keywords:
Decolonization, Indigenous Law, Human Rights, Legal Pluralism, Epistemic Injustice, Customary Law, Qualitative ResearchAbstract
This study aims to explore how indigenous legal perspectives critique, reinterpret, and resist the dominant framework of universal human rights law, with a focus on identifying culturally grounded conceptions of justice, law, and legal authority. Using a qualitative research design grounded in interpretivist epistemology, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 21 participants residing in Tehran, including legal scholars, community elders, cultural advocates, and human rights practitioners with indigenous heritage or expertise. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, and data collection continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. All interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically using NVivo software, following a coding process that included open, axial, and selective coding to identify key categories, subthemes, and conceptual patterns within the data. The analysis revealed four overarching themes: (1) critique of the universal human rights framework, including perceived cultural incompatibility, epistemological colonialism, and legal exclusion; (2) indigenous conceptions of justice centered on relational accountability, restorative practices, and spiritual cosmology; (3) the limits of current legal pluralism, characterized by tokenistic recognition and structural subordination of indigenous law; and (4) decolonial strategies such as the revitalization of customary law, community-based legal education, and intercultural legal dialogue. Participants emphasized the need for meaningful recognition of indigenous legal systems and called for a transformation of legal norms to accommodate multiple epistemologies. The study underscores the epistemic and structural limitations of dominant human rights discourses in addressing indigenous legal realities. It advocates for a paradigm shift toward genuine legal pluralism and decolonial engagement that affirms indigenous sovereignty, legal authority, and cultural specificity in shaping justice.
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