Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 17, 1993                   TAG: 9306170189
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: VIENNA, AUSTRIA                                LENGTH: Medium

HUMAN-RIGHTS RESOLUTION PICKS UP A FEW OPPONENTS

The campaign, unfolding here these days at the U.N. World Conference on Human Rights, is cloaked in an old argument: that Western definitions of human rights are culture-bound and thus inappropriate in many non-Western cultures.

Activists attending the conference say that, while the argument may be well-known, it has been newly packaged in a sophisticated, appealing form that makes it one of the most serious threats ever mounted against the 45-year-old Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the two subsequent covenants covering economic, social, cultural, civic and political rights.

Collectively, these documents form the legal basis for protecting human rights globally.

The attack, known in human rights circles as "cultural relativism," appears to be focused in two key areas: against full freedom of political expression and against the concept of equality for the female half of the human race.

"The cultural argument is the threat at this conference," said Kenneth Roth, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group that monitors political and civil rights in 70 countries. "It is a challenge that has been visible for the past few years, but this is the first real opportunity to seek international endorsement and legitimacy. The debate is going on as if 118 countries had not ratified the two covenants."

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights John Shadduck said in an interview that some delegates, especially from Africa, had voiced concern privately that the attack could endanger hard-won human rights gains in their own countries.

The campaign is is not being mounted by a few pariah states claiming that cultural differences give them the right to torture, rape or kill. Such claims would be easy to isolate and stifle, activists said. Instead, several Asian countries are saying that religious and cultural tradition justify a limited freedom of expression and a reduced social role for women.

Roth, for example, said officials from Singapore argue that because Asian tradition places greater emphasis on consensus than competition, Western, competitive-style democracy is a cultural misfit.

"The catch is, those in power determine the consensus," Roth said.

The main advocates of this argument are said to be Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, but countries with notoriously poor human rights records such as China and Syria are eager supporters.

In his speech to the conference Tuesday, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Huaqiu not only cited the cultural argument, but declared that the mere accusation of human rights abuses constitutes an infringement of sovereignty and interference in a nation's internal affairs.

"Other countries have no right to interfere," he said bluntly.

In a conference where consensus is required for any important initiatives, proposals to establish a U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights as urged by the United States and other Western countries, would seem to have little chance of winning adoption.