“Asian Values,” Gender, and Culture-Specific Development

Abstract

The human rights debate has been heavily criticized ever since its inception as the key premise of the universality of all human rights. Some critics have argued that human rights are merely a Western product derived from and inherently linked to Western values, the substance of which cannot therefore be considered universally valid as legal concepts. A particular wave of this culturally specific human rights debate comes from South, Southeast, and East Asia. In these regions the argument has been propounded that human rights—as inherently Western concepts—are incompatible with “prototypical” Asian societies. Members of these societies often make the assertion that the very notion of human rights is in some way the product of the colonial and economic prerogatives of Western societies. Not only do these views simplify the issue, but ignore the Asian writings, religions, and cultural traditions from which originate the same “seeds” and inspirations for what we today call human rights.