Abstract
This chapter looked at the old debate of relativism and universalism on human rights. The author agreed with Jack Donnelly that radical universalism or radical relativism has gradually lost its charm. Universal human rights have to be always confronted with and situated in regional particularities. The first key divergent part is whether the emphasis should be placed on the universality of human rights or on the particularities of the regional context. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action opts for the former, whereas the Bangkok Declaration favors the latter. This fundamental difference has significantly determined and shaped the course of the development of a regional human rights mechanism in the ASEAN context. With the adoption of the ASEAN Charter, an ASEAN human rights mechanism can find its legal basis in this fundamental (constitutional) instrument. Nonetheless, the Charter does not articulate the precise form of an ASEAN human rights body but leaves it to the discretion of national governments. By defining the terms of reference, the ASEAN Member States have effectively downplayed the shape of an ASEAN human rights body and made it more a human rights promotion body than a protection one. Moreover, whereas the ASEAN adopted the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration in 2012, regional particularities prevail over the universality of human rights. So far the ASEAN has traveled; so little it has achieved. The ASEAN human rights discourse is still haunted by regional particularities which jealously guard sovereignty and value the noninterference principle.
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Notes
- 1.
Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, 12 June 1993, A/CONF.157/23 [hereinafter VDPA].
- 2.
G.A. Res. 48/121, U.N. Doc.A/RES/48/121 (20 December 1993).
- 3.
Final Declaration of the Regional Meeting for Asia of the World Conference on Human Rights, http://faculty.washington.edu/swhiting/pols469/Bangkok_Declaration.doc. Accessed 21 March 2016 [hereinafter Bangkok Declaration ].
- 4.
Bangkok Declaration , para. 4.
- 5.
Bangkok Declaration , para. 5.
- 6.
Bangkok Declaration , para. 6.
- 7.
Bangkok Declaration , para. 7.
- 8.
Bangkok Declaration , para. 8.
- 9.
Donnelly (2007), p. 291.
- 10.
- 11.
- 12.
Sen (1994), p. 31; see also Amartya Sen, Asian Values and Human Rights. Paper presented at Sixteenth Morgenthau Memorial Lecture on Ethics & Foreign Policy, New York City, 1 May 1997.
- 13.
VDPA, para 1 [The universal nature of these rights and freedoms is beyond question …. Human rights and fundamental freedoms are the birthright of all human beings; their protection and promotion is the first responsibility of Governments.]
- 14.
VDPA, para. 2.
- 15.
VDPA, para. 10.
- 16.
VDPA, para. 31.
- 17.
VDPA, para. 5.
- 18.
VDPA, para. 37.
- 19.
1993 Joint Communique of the 26th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting issued on 24 July 1993 in Singapore, para. 18.
- 20.
- 21.
Ginbar (2010), p. 513.
- 22.
Munro (2011), p. 1189.
- 23.
Ciorciari (2012), p. 712.
- 24.
AICHR, terms of reference, art. 3 [hereinafter ToR].
- 25.
ToR, art. 5.2.
- 26.
ToR, art. 2.1.
- 27.
ToR, art. 1.4.
- 28.
ToR, art. 8.6.
- 29.
Ciorciari (2012), pp. 716–720.
- 30.
ASEAN Human Rights Declaration , para. 28(f) [hereinafter AHRD].
- 31.
AHRD, paras. 35–37.
- 32.
AHRD, para. 38.
- 33.
AHRD, para. 7.
- 34.
ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/11/200915.htm. Accessed 25 March 2016.
- 35.
Id.
- 36.
An Open Letter from the Coordination Committee of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council on the draft ASEAN Human Rights Declaration. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14864&LangID=E#sthash.EHaJTlSZ.dpuf. Accessed 25 March 2016 [hereinafter Open Letter from the Coordination Committee].
- 37.
Id.
- 38.
Id.
- 39.
Id.
- 40.
AHRD, para. 6.
- 41.
Open Letter from the Coordination Committee.
- 42.
Renshaw (2013), pp. 473–474.
- 43.
Declaration on the Right to Development, G.A. Res. 41/128, U.N. Doc. A/RES/41/128 (4 December 1986).
- 44.
Id., para. 1.1.
- 45.
AHRD, para. 35.
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Wu, CH. (2016). Human Rights in ASEAN Context: Between Universalism and Relativism. In: Lo, Cf., Li, N., Lin, Ty. (eds) Legal Thoughts between the East and the West in the Multilevel Legal Order. Economics, Law, and Institutions in Asia Pacific. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1995-1_17
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