East Meets West
Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia
Introduction
A SMALL SET OF crucial human rights are valued, at least in theory, by all
governments in the contemporary world. The most obvious are the
prohibitions against slavery, genocide, murder, torture, prolonged
arbitrary detention, and systematic racial discrimination. These rights
have become part of customary international law and they are not
contested in the public rhetoric of the international arena. Of course,
many gross human rights violations occur off the record, and human rights
groups such as Amnesty International have the task of exposing the gap
between public allegiance to rights and the sad reality of ongoing abuse.
This is largely practical work, however. There is not much point writing
or deliberating about the desirability of practices that everyone condemns
at the level of principle.
But political thinkers and activists around the world can and do take
different sides on many pressing human rights concerns that fall outside
the sphere of customary international law. This gray area of debate
... read full excerpt from: East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia ebook
