Human rights from the perspective of Southeast Asia in the light of the concept of ‘Asian values’ Cover Image

Prawa człowieka z perspektywy Azji Południowo-Wschodniej w świetle koncepcji „azjatyckich wartości”
Human rights from the perspective of Southeast Asia in the light of the concept of ‘Asian values’

Author(s): Przemysław Brzuszczak
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN
Keywords: Asian values; Southeast Asia; Mahathir bin Mohamad; cultural relativism; universalism of human rights

Summary/Abstract: This article attempts to present the ‘style of cognition’ of human rights typical of Southeast Asia. The debate on ‘cultural nationalism’ intensified in the 1990s, when the arguments for contextualism, coming from this region, were conceptualised. The category of Asian values fuelled many polemic discussions in publications and political fora. Here, this concept is analysed primarily at the level of cultural criticism. It is accompanied by an overview of the arguments regarding the ‘politicisation’ of the idea of human rights. In this article, the final evaluation of cultural separatism follows the perspective of ‘soft’ universalism or pluralistic universalism.

  • Issue Year: 73/2020
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 115-134
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Polish