Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Does The Dao Support Individual Autonomy And Human Rights?, Caroline M. Carr

Summer Research Program

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) lists what have come to be called “first” and “second” generation rights. First generation rights are civil and political (for instance, the right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble); second generation are social, economic, and cultural (protection against unemployment, universal healthcare, equal pay). However, Western and Asian nations are in disagreement about whether or not all of these generations of rights should be universal. While Western nations strongly believe that first generation rights should be universal, Asian nations insist that their unique “Asian values” require second generation rights to precede first …