The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights

This book identifies the more persuasive contributions by East Asian intellectuals to the international human rights debate.

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

9780521645362, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 February 1999

412 pages, 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.6 kg

"This volume ['s]...fourteen chapters, written by authors from various disciplines, address many of the main issues in the [universal human rights] debate from a variety of angles, invariably with sophistication and insight. The authors avoid the tendency to attack straw men, offering instead arguments filled with nuance and qualifications." China Review International

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, has long been dismissed by Western and Asian human rights advocates as a weak excuse. This study moves beyond the politicized rhetoric to identify the more persuasive contributions by East Asian intellectuals. The editors argue that critical intellectuals in East Asia have begun to chart a middle ground between the extremes of this argument, making particular headway in the areas of group rights and economic, social, and cultural (ethnic minority) rights. The chapters examine the following 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; and key human rights issues facing East Asia as a result of rapid economic growth.

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.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH]