In the preceding sections I have argued that where traditional practices conflict irreconcilably with internationally recognized human rights, traditional practices usually must give way — just as traditional Western practices such as racial and gender discrimination and the persecution of religious deviants have been required to give way. Sovereignty, development, and traditional conceptions of social order do not absolve Asian governments from the requirement to implement internationally recognized human rights. But this does not mean that Asian societies ought to follow "Western" models blindly. Quite the contrary, internationally recognized human rights leave considerable space for distinctively Asian implementations of these rights.
Elsewhere I have described this approach to human rights as "weak cultural relativism."65 Human rights are treated as essentially universal, but substantial space is allowed for variations in implementing these universal norms. Core rights "concepts" laid down in authoritative international documents, such as equal protection and social security, should be considered largely invariant. But they are subject to differing "interpretations," within the range laid down by the concept. And concrete "implementations" of these interpretations have a wide range of legitimate variation.
Consider two examples, drawn somewhat arbitrarily from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "No one shall be subjected to torture or to