Righteous talk

Article Abstract:

Asian criticisms of human rights as an idea take two principal forms. The first holds that human rights are really non-Asian concepts that the West extends to other regions to maintain imperialistic control. This argument overlooks the self-evident universality of human rights as shown by the democratic yearnings of Asian peoples such as the Cambodians. The second criticism maintains that economic development, the prime concern of most Asian countries, sometimes requires that human rights be infringed. However, the conditions that make such infringement acceptable are liable to change.

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Rights thinking: where East meets West: freedom vs entitlement

Article Abstract:

The international debate on Eastern and Western views of human rights would become less muddled if entitlements were not confused with rights. Social security, employment, health care and other benefits are entitlements to which people can justly aspire, but they should not be classified as civil rights. The reluctance to make this distinction obscures the role of private institutions and limited government in safeguarding true human rights. Emphasizing entitlements reinforces central government, which weakens human rights since most of them are freedoms from government.

Editorial, Entitlements (Law)

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The rights stuff

Article Abstract:

The UN World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria did not result in a weakening of the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights largely thanks to the efforts of 1,300 non-governmental organizations (NGOs). These NGOs, which included about 250 from the Asia-Pacific area, helped prevent the delegations from China and other repressive countries from enfeebling the final Vienna Declaration and Program of Action with statements about human rights being a Western idea. Indeed, the existence of Asian human-rights NGOs refutes any such claim.

Non-governmental organizations, Nongovernmental organizations

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