The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights

by Edited by Joanne R. Bauer , Daniel A. Bell

• ISBN13: 9780521645362
• ISBN10: 0521645360
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-02-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The "Asian values" argument within the international human rights debate holds that not all Asian states should be expected to protect human rights to the same degree. This position of "cultural relativism," often used by authoritarian governments in Asia to counter charges of human rights violations, has long been dismissed by Western and Asian human rights advocates as a weak excuse. This book moves beyond the politicized rhetoric that has dogged the international debate on human rights to identify the more persuasive contributions by East Asian intellectuals. The editors of this book argue that critical intellectuals in East Asia have begun to chart a middle ground between the extreme, uncompromising ends of this argument, making particular headway in the areas of group rights and economic, social, and cultural (ethnic minority) rights. The chapters form a collective intellectual inquiry into the following four areas: critical perspectives on the "Asian values" debate; theoretical proposals for an improved international human rights regime with greater input from East Asians; the resources within East Asian cultural traditions that can help promote human rights in the region; and key human rights issues facing East Asia as a result of rapid economic growth in the region.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I: 1. Introduction

Part II. Critical Perspectives on the 'Asian Values' Debate: 2. A post-Orientalist defense of liberal democracy for Asia Tatsuo Inoue

3. Human rights and Asian values Jack Donnelly

4. Human rights and economic achievements Amartya Sen

Part III. Toward a More Inclusive International Regime: 5. Towards an intercivilizational approach to human rights Yasuaki Onuma

6. Conditions of an unforced consensus on human rights Charles Taylor

Part IV. Culture and Human Rights: 7. The cultural mediation of human rights: the Al-Arqam case in Malaysia Abdullahi An-Na'im

8. Grounding human rights Arguments in Non-Western Culture: Shari'a and the citizenship rights of women in a modern Islamic nation-state Norani Othman

9. Looking to Buddhism to turn back Thai prostitution in Southeast Asia Suwanna Satha-Anand

10. A Confucian perspective on human rights Joseph Chan

Part V. Economic Development and Human Rights: 11. Rights, social justice and globalization in East Asia Yash Ghai

12. Economic development, legal reform, and rights in Singapore and Taiwan Kevin Y. L. Tan

13. Human rights issues in China's internal migration: insights from comparisons with Germany and Japan Dorothy Solinger

14. The anti-nuclear-power movement and the rise of rights consciousness in Taiwan Mab Huang

15. The applicability of the international legal concept of 'Indigenous Peoples' in Asia Benedict Kingsbury

Notes

Tables.