Human Rights Universalism in Practice: What the Iranian Women's Rights Movement Can Teach Us

Does practice demonstrate the legitimacy of international human rights law? This article explores this question via a case study of the women's rights movement in Iran. Current human rights sceptics question the system's legitimacy because of a lack of universality and an excessive top-down approach. However, the Islamic Republic of Iran has a remarkable community of grassroots activists. The bottom-up women's rights initiative of the One Million Signatures Campaign utilised human rights discourse in combination with local, indigenous values in pursuit of gender equality. The article argues-via the case study of this movement-that there is practical evidence to support a theory of human rights universalism, as positive human rights law empowers the existing subjectivity of individuals. The universal legitimacy of international human rights law does not primarily come from a global network dictating common values, but from members of civil society mobilising their status as rights holders.