Menneskerettigheter Og Ulike Verdisyn: Vestlige Mot Asiatiske Verdier?

Abstract

Few states admit that they systematically and deliberately violate international human rights. The Bangkok Declaration of 1993 ended this public consensus. In this declaration several states argued that civil and political human rights must be set aside insofar as they are incompatible with Asian values. Foreign protests against human rights were also dismissed as violating states' sovereignty.The lecture discusses and rebuts the criticism raised in the Bangkok Declaration. Several objections against international human rights are identified and assessed on the basis of theories of human rights.Claims to thorough-going differences between and Western cultures do not stand against criticisms, and few objections against human rights can be maintained. The remaining objections do not invalidate human rights, but support some justifications for human rights rather than others. Thus human rights cannot be dismissed as objectionable exercises of Western ideological imperialism.