The contributions of professor amartya sen in the field of. Mcmurrin s tanner lectures on human values, volume 1. In ethics, sens work has challenged the exclusion of poverty. Sen argues that asian authoritarian values appear to stem. Amartya sen on human rights in the idea of justice alistair. Professor sen is uniquely qualified to accept the challenge, and i thank him for doing so. Amartya sens first and most straightforward critique on asian values is the fact. All human rights and fundamental freedoms in this declaration must be treated in a fair and equal manner. Asian values and liberal democracy universiteit leiden. First, sens contributions in the disciplines of ethics and economics have deepened and expanded theoretical discourse on human rights in important and influential ways. Such rights, especially freedom of the press, speech, assembly, and so forth increase the likelihood of honest, clean, good government.
Indeed, the most important of those ideas was the claim that asian values did not give freedom the same importance as it is accorded in the west sen, 1997. What lee kuan yew and le peng dont understand about asia. Sen and other asian scholars have been critical of the claim that asia had long expelled political. Human rights and capabilities amartya sen amartya sen is lamont university professor at harvard university, cambridge, ma, usa abstract the two concepts human rights and capabilities go well with each other, so long as we do not try to subsume either concept entirely within the territory of the other. Do confucian values deter chinese citizens support for. They are often based on badly researched generalizations and frequently uttered by governmental spokesmen countering accusations of authoritarianism and violations of human rights as happened spectacularly at the world conference on human rights in vienna in 1993. According to sen, development is enhanced by democracy and the protection of human rights. Pdf this paper presents the importance of issue of universality of human rights and relations towards asian values i. Download the complete article as a pdf the rise of asian values. This article investigates the validity of the concept of asian values in southeast asia, and attempts to explain and reconcile where possible some of the key differences between the position on human rights of asean, which has remained semiunited despite internal tensions, and the west, particularly the us, and the nongovernmental organizations ngos in the ongoing asian values debate. Dec 01, 20 the most clear embodiment of this challenge are asian values, where following the incredible economic success of a number of eastsoutheast asian states, leaders and academics pointed to an alternative, more authoritative standard of rights, stemming from asian conservative cultural values freeman, 2008, 363.
Much of this has been down to a false belief, promoted by contestable notions like asian values, that human rights threaten the regions ambitions. He claims that no famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy. Chapter 10, culture and human rights, draws on sens reading of asian history and religious thought and is aimed at disproving the proposition that there is something called asian values that is antithetical to the case for basic freedoms. Human rights and asian values carnegie council for. Carnegie council, 1997 16th morgenthau memorial lecture on ethics and foreign policy. While sens doctrine of human rights is a freedomemphasizing doctrine, its distinctive features visavis competing freedomfocused accounts would be more clearly etched if it were made clearer what the sense is in which it stresses protection of important human freedoms, especially since he concedes that not all freedoms, even when. Amartya sen, human rights and asian values new republic. To read the full introduction, download the pdf at the bottom of this. A pale shadow of what it could have been 2012 2 asiapacific journal on human rights and the law 1. During the past decade, several leaders and intellectuals in east asia have challenged the notion that human rights are universal. Constitutionalism and western legal traditions in human rights 717 words, the contradictions or differences between various religious or cultural values in the world, differences that have a direct bearing on the legal values adhered to by the asian countries under consideration here huntington 1998. Scholars argue the appeal to cultural relativist arguments such as asian values is an ideological attempt to justify authoritarian government freeman, 2008, 363. The human rights and asian values debate in southeast asia.
Amartya sen, human rights and asian values new york. I personally have great skepticism about the theories extolling the wonders of asian values. Too often, this kind of debate involves recovering obscure and longforgotten references, and proving that asian societies profess this or that political value. Human rights and asian values by sen, amartya kumar. Rosenthal president carnegie council on ethics and international affairs.
Universal human rights, cultural relativism and the asian values debate 9 october 2010. Sen explains how in a world of unprecedented increase in overall opulence, millions of people living in rich and poor countries are still unfree. Pdf the asian conception of human rights is fundamentally. This blueprint contained proposals for restructuring of existing syllabi, and introduction of new courses and or foundation courses in human rights. It aimed to use commonalities for example, the principles of collectivism or communitarianism to unify people for their economic and social good and to create a pan asian identity. Oct 09, 2010 universal human rights, cultural relativism and the asian values debate 9 october 2010.
Amartya kumar sen is an indian economist who was awarded the 1998 nobel prize in economic sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of societys poorest members. The results show that there was no evidence that confucian values inhibit the chinese publics support for democracy in a democratic transition, but they are negatively connected to liberal democratic values, which are fundamental to the resilience and consolidation of a fledgling democracy. Professor sens chosen topic, human rights and asian values. In contrast, sens research has highlighted the central idea that, in the final analysis, market outcomes and government actions should be judged in terms of valuable human ends. Professor sen was born in india and educated in calcutta and at cambridge university. Mar 28, 2014 according to sen, development is enhanced by democracy and the protection of human rights. Sen, amartya may 25, 1997, human rights and asian values, sixteenth annual morgenthau memorial lecture on ethics and foreign policy sen, amartya 8 december 1998, the possibility of social choice, trinity college, cambridge, uk nobel lecture pdf, sweden. In development as freedom amartya sen quotes the eighteenth century poet william cowper on freedom. In 1998, professor sen became the first indian and the first asian to win the nobel prize in economics. Amartya sen, human rights and asian values in richard falk, hilal elver and lisa hajjar eds. Fred reinhard, 1928philosophy east and west, volume 52, number 2, april 2002, pp. Mar 9 human rights and decolonization read burke mar 16 human rights, cosmopolitanism, universalism and asian values moyn, the udhr and cosmopolitanism sen human rights and asian values romila thapar, the hindu and buddhist traditions liu, human rights and universalism mar 23 classes follow a friday schedule, no meeting.
Amartya sen on development as freedom asian century. Joseph chan, the debate on asian concepts of rights. Discussion asian valuesthe response of asian ngos and amartya sen. Freedom has a thousand charms to show, that slaves howeer contented, never know. Human rights and asian values notes human rights asian. Carnegie council on ethics and international affairs, 1997, published in a shortened form in the new republic, 1421 july 1997. Carnegie council on ethics and international relations. Democracy as a universal value journal of democracy. New york, dec 6, 2004 amartya sen was born in 1933 in santiniketan, india. Asian values, china and human rights the rights future. Even if they are not technically slaves, they are denied elementary. Constitutionalism and western legal traditions in human.
The issue of implementing universal human rights specifically article 18 of the international covenant on civil and political rights, which articulates the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion continues to be a sensitive and ongoing issue between various. The second and third challenges to western conceptions of human rights are more directly disputes over cultural values. Asean human rights declaration we the association of. Asian values and global human rights dallmayr, fred r. Introduction in 1985, the ugc prepared a blueprint for promotion of human rights teaching and research at all levels of education. The international community since the second world war has largely rejected strong versions of cultural relativism in favor of the view that all persons, regardless of culture, are entitled to core rights by virtue of their humanity.
Kausikan, an east asian approach to human rights, 2 buff. Professor sens chosen topic, human rights and asian values, challenges us on philosophic, economic, and cultural grounds. Contesting national identities and cultural representations in asia democracy in asia. In direct opposition to the common claim that the ideas of human rights and democracy represent a form of western cultural imperialism, it is argued that only democratic procedures and the protection of fundamental human rights can ensure that the development strategies of asian states conform to the values of asian people. Asian values are typically described as embodying the confucian ideals of respect for authority, hard work, thrift, and the belief that the community is more important than the individual. The human rights and asian values debate in southeast.
Contesting national identities and cultural representations in asia democracy in asia bruun, ole, jacobsen, michael on. Development as freedom is amartya sen s first book after receiving the nobel. The challengers called into question the validity and universality of the declaration even as they demanded a fundamental revision of its essential character. Asian values and human rights is an attempt to present and defend an interpretation of confucianism that may be relevant for confucianinfluenced societies in east asia, especially china. Amartya sen on human rights in the idea of justice. Constitutionalism and western legal traditions in human rights 717 words, the contradictions or differences between various religious or cultural values in the world, differences that have a direct bearing on the legal values adhered to by the asian countries. Advocates of asian values typically claimed that the rapid development of many east asian economies in the postworld war ii. Human rights issues have come to international prominence in the postcold war world. This is said to be coupled with a preference for economic, social, and cultural rights rather than political rights. Universal human rights, cultural relativism and the asian. In section i, i identify several minitheses embedded in amartya sens theory of human rights such theses as 1 that human rights are moral, not legal, rights, 2 that nevertheless they are not rights that are awaiting transformation into legal rights, 3 that an expansive doctrine of human rights can incorporate a broad swath of. Publication date 1997 topics political rights, human rights, political culture, democracy, authoritarianism.
Amartya sen, a renowned political economist and expert on human rights, is skeptical of. View test prep human rights and asian values notes from plir 3310 at university of virginia. Excerpt from president joel rosenthals introduction. The human rights positions of east asian states have. Asian values, set of values promoted since the late 20th century by some asian political leaders and intellectuals as a conscious alternative to western political values such as human rights, democracy, and capitalism. Amartya sen, human rights and asian values, the new republic, july 14july. Amartya sen, human rights and asian values, morgenthau memorial lecture new york.
However, at the 1993 vienna world conference on human rights, china led a group of asian. Advocates of asian values typically claimed that the rapid development of many east asian economies in the postworld war ii period was due to the shared culture of their. A wideranging historical and economic survey of asia reveals little substance in singaporean prime minister lee kuan yew. As against the claim end page 643 that human rights ideas and. It aimed to use commonalities for example, the principle of collectivism to unify people for their economic and social good and to create a panasian. Its themeadopted from a tenet of the preamble of the united nations charterwas to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person.
As the nobel prizewinning economist amartya sen has said, empirical studies give no real support to the claim that there is a conflict between political rights and economic performance. Association of southeast asian nations, asean secretariat, community of opportunity, connectivity, economic community, political security community, socio cultural community. Advocates of asian values are routinely and often correctly accused of putting forward selfserving arguments to justify human rights abuses and undemocratic practices. The term asian values is a political ideology that arose in the 1990s, which defined elements of society, culture, and history common to the nations of southeast asia and east asia. In the first half of the 1990s, the relationship between human rights and what were described as asian values came briefly to the fore as a topic of the first importance, one that for a time seemed to threaten the universality of human rights, forcing its ethical assumptions onto the defensive and at its most extreme.
Professor sen s chosen topic, human rights and asian values, challenges us on philosophic, economic, and cultural grounds. On the eve of the uns planning for the yearlong fiftieth anniversary ceremonies of the universal declaration of human rights, suddenly the united states and the west found themselves challenged by a southeast asian bloc of states. Josiane cauquelin, paul lim and birgit mayerkonig eds. Asian values or the asian concept of human rights were the phrases that were used to characterize the challenge. Human rights and asian values carnegie council for ethics. But there is also a different line of justification that argues for authoritarian governance in the interest of economic development in asia. Leaders may manipulate discussion of human rights, adopting selfserving positions to prevent changes to the status quo. Development as freedom is amartya sens first book after receiving the nobel. His early education was deeply influenced by his schools founder, rabindranath tagore. Chapter 5 discusses the relative role of markets and the state in generating social op.