human beiqgs a รท vt iimmImiIi. rules, or roles that they do not also impose on themseiweS-,g
Human rights empower those individuals and groups who will bear the consequences to deckle, within certain limits, how they will lead their lives. Therefore, differences in implementing international human rights are not merely justifiable, they are to be expected. For example, Asian children would be expected to give much greater weight to the views and interests of their families in decisions to marry. Confrontational political tactics will be less common (and less effective). There will be greater social constraints on deviant public speech and behavior of all sorts.
These examples, however, illustrate individuals exercising their internationally recognized human rights in a particular fashion, not a different conception of human rights, and they do not suggest the legitimacy, let alone the necessity, of coercively prohibiting the "Western" style of exercising these rights. If Asians choose to exercise their rights in "Western" ways, that too is their right.
Children cannot be legally prohibited from marrying the partner of their choice — unless we are to deny the human right to marry and found a family. Families may sanction their choices in a variety of ways, but it is not the role of the state to enforce family preferences on adult children. Members of minority religious communities may legitimately suffer social sanctions or even ostracism. But unless we deny the human right to freedom of religion, the state has no business forcing the religious preferences of some on others. If individuals and groups who make unpopular choices are willing to accept the social sanctions associated with "deviant" behavior, their decisions, what-evet their relation to cultural tradition, must be not merely tolerated but protected by the state — or we must abandon the idea of human rights.
A human rights approach assumes that people probably are best suited, and in any case are entitled, to choose the good life for themselves. If Asians truly do value family over self, they will exercise their personal rights with the consequences for their family in mind. If they value harmony and order, they will exercise their civil liberties in a harmonious and orderly fashion. International human rights norms do not require or even encourage Asians to give up their culture — any more than Locke, Paine, or Jefferson asked their contempoiaries to give up their culture.