Development of human rights throughout the Asia-Pacific region

Against the background of a general review of the number of points of convergence between Western concepts of human rights and influential Asian philosophies, the author reports on the effectiveness of national human rights institutions and endeavours to illustrate the problems encountered in the development of an Asia-Pacific regional human rights agreement. Key institutions such as the Asia-Pacific Forum and LAWASIA, which produce vital documents such as the Asian Human Rights Charter and the 1995 Beijing Statement of Principles of the Independence of the Judiciary, are scrutinised in the context of providing guidance in a global political climate where state sovereignty is constantly threatening to encroach upon basic individual human rights.