ABSTRACT
This chapter makes a preliminary attempt to identify the myths, misconceptions, and fallacies that have gone into creating an "Asian view" of human rights. Although scholars have explored the understanding of human rights in various Asian contexts, the concept of "Asian values" gains political prominence only when it is articulated in government rhetoric and official statements. The chapter addresses the claims that make up the "Asian view", particularly the argument that rights are "culturally specific". This argument implies that social norms originating in other cultures should not be adopted in Asian culture. In some contemporary Asian societies, the people find economic, social, cultural, and political conditions that foster demands for human rights as the normsetting criteria for the treatment of individual persons and the communities they form. The threat posed by "Asian values" to the universality of human rights seems ominous.
