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SUMMARY:Beyond “Asian Values”: A Reassessment of Western and Asian Per
 spectives on Human Rights - Yvonne Tew\, PhD Candidate\, Faculty of Law
DTSTART:20110207T123000Z
DTEND:20110207T140000Z
UID:TALK27591@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Hubertus Juergenliemk
DESCRIPTION:Theories of human rights over the past half century have large
 ly fallen into two broad categories: the universalistic conception of huma
 n rights and the relativistic approach. The former\, so-called “Western
 ”\, paradigm has been accused of advocating an individualistic approach 
 to human rights that prioritizes the individual’s rights against society
 \; by contrast\, the non-Western approaches emphasize socio-political and 
 economic stability\, privileging community and duties over the rights of t
 he individual. Although the “Asian values” model has been criticized a
 s a construct used by authoritarian regimes to undermine civil liberties u
 nder the guise of maintaining political stability\, little effort has been
  made to move beyond this stagnant approach or to develop a more nuanced t
 heory of human rights through a Southeast Asian lens.\n\nThe result is a l
 acuna in the jurisprudence dealing with the challenges of accommodating fu
 ndamental liberties within the constitutional framework of Southeast Asian
  countries\, particularly Malaysia and Singapore. Faced with a seemingly s
 tark choice between the two competing models\, courts in Southeast Asia ha
 ve instinctively viewed a strong protection of an individual’s human rig
 hts as a “Western” approach inappropriate for the Asian context. This 
 has led to an undermining of civil liberties in many cases where there app
 ears to be a potential clash between the rights of an individual and commu
 nitarian goals\, such as those involving freedom of religion or freedom of
  expression.\n\nMy paper aims to provide an analysis of the so-called West
 ern and non-Western models of human rights protection and to examine wheth
 er the tensions identified continue to frame discourse in this area\, part
 icularly after the Asian financial crisis in 1997. I argue that there is a
  need for a more developed model of rights protection that combines a cont
 extual Asian perspective with a balanced liberalism approach\, and make pr
 eliminary observations on the principles that will shape the contours of t
 his balanced contextual approach.\n\nThe discussant will be Dr Robert Weat
 herley\nhttp://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/contacts/staff/weatherley-robert.html\n
 \nFor more information\, please visit: http://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/res
 earch-students/yvonne-tew/1077
LOCATION:Senior Common Room\, 17 Mill Lane\, Cambridge CB2 1RX
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