Can Democracy Promote Human Rights?An Empirical Analysis of Southeast Asia: 1981-2008
Author: Yung-ming Yen
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
The 1990s witnessed the rise of the Asian values debate as governments in Southeast Asia rejected the idea of universal human rights. Nevertheless, critical developments in human rights promotion and protection have occurred in the last decade across countries in the region. This article offers an empirical analysis of human rights politics in Southeast Asia from 1981 to 2008. With a focus on personal integrity rights, it is found that domestic-level factors are more critical than external forces in understanding the actual level of rights protection in Southeast Asian countries. Human rights treaty ratification and foreign aid fail to facilitate rights protection. Additionally, the constraining effect of democracy on human rights violation is not uniform. The results suggest that the relationship between democracy and human rights varies from one type of personal integrity rights to another, and implies the substitutability of repressive strategies employed by state authority toward its people.