Human Rights in Asia: The Case of China, Japan and North and South Korea

Abstract

This article presents the issue of human rights in selected East Asian countries: China, South and North Korea and Japan. The Author looks at them from the European perspective and try to analyse the same issue in different political systems in order to present it through the universal prism of Asian values. From an ethical perspective, some groups of Asian politicians and scientists perceive Asian values as the equivalent of human rights. The Bangkok Declaration of 1993 was a major step because it was the first to include Asian values in an international status document, and it emphasised their existence and historical and cultural difference to human rights. Human rights as a product of Western civilisation do not include the achievements and philosophical thoughts of the Asia region. The Author believes that human rights are universal, not because they concern all people and are universally respected and recognised—as claimed by most Western experts—but because they have been included in the constitutions of many countries of the world (formal recognition). In this sense, we can speak of some universalism of human rights.