Which Comes First: Rights or Obligations? A Revelation on Human Rights Education Through the Argumentation of Asian Values

Abstract

The clash between Asian values and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights implies a crucial revelation regarding the universality and relativity of the human rights concept. Various issues on rights and obligations are notions critical to human rights education, which warrant further discussion. The concept of Asian values has not been introduced in Taiwan’s human rights education and is the subject of this study. Located in East Asia and immersed in the cultural values and traditional virtues of Confucianism, the people of Taiwan may opt to analyze the connotations of Asian values to carefully consider the order of priorities between rights and obligations, the ranking of values between economic development and human rights, and the compromise between personal freedom and communitarianism. By examining Asian values and the Confucian culture commended by these values, the concept of human rights education were revisited and re-explored.

Keywords

• Asian value
• Confucianism
• human rights education
• the philosophy of education