The authors reply Os autores respondem

Cad. Saúde Pública, Rio de Janeiro, 26(5):853-878, mai, 2010 to the principles of legal pluralism, it safeguards the principles laid out under international human rights legislation and affirms respect for the internal law of peoples whenever human rights (as well as each national state’s legislation) are not violated. Thus, the argumentation relying on this safeguard is only relatively effective. It would be more effective to draw on Brazil’s commitment, assumed by ratifying this Convention, but also more recently by signing the Declaration of the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to not legislate for indigenous peoples without their own participation in the decision-making process on norms that will affect their lives. Further considering respect for each people’s own law, I have argued at length that the discussion of infanticide does not involve this issue, but another area which I find central for dealing with such extreme dilemmas as infanticide: the state’s responsibility to protect each people’s internal decision-making capacity, and in keeping with this, safeguarding each people’s autonomy to build its own history. Through its own history, woven from the internal debate, and not the preservation of customs from an essentialist perspective of culture, each people will build its own particular dialogue with the common sphere of human rights. This has been my stance, and I believe that it allows us to efficiently transcend the paralyzing dichotomy between relativism and universalism 3.