Double Standards in Human Rights Interpretation (Comparison of American and Asian Practices)
Article Sidebar
Published
Jan 31, 2023
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper explores the phenomenon of double standards in the interpretation and application of human rights principles, with a comparative analysis between American and Asian practices. Through an examination of key case studies and legal frameworks, it delves into the disparities and inconsistencies that arise in the treatment of human rights issues across these regions. The study elucidates how cultural, political, and historical factors shape differing perspectives on human rights, leading to divergent approaches in addressing violations and advocating for protections. Drawing upon empirical evidence and scholarly discourse, the paper highlights instances where double standards manifest in human rights discourse, such as the selective condemnation of human rights abuses based on geopolitical interests or cultural biases. It examines how interpretations of rights, such as freedom of expression and assembly, vary between the American and Asian contexts, often resulting in contrasting legal norms and enforcement mechanisms. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the impact of these double standards on marginalized communities and the effectiveness of international human rights mechanisms in promoting accountability and justice. In conclusion, the paper underscores the importance of recognizing and addressing double standards in human rights interpretation to ensure equitable treatment and protection for all individuals regardless of nationality or cultural background. It calls for greater transparency, consistency, and collaboration in upholding universal human rights standards, thereby fostering a more just and inclusive global society.
Article Details
How to Cite
Sanjaya, Aldo Dicky, and Mokhammad Kahvi Faisal. 2023. “Double Standards in Human Rights Interpretation (Comparison of American and Asian Practices)”. International Law Discourse in Southeast Asia 2 (1), 29-56. https://doi.org/10.15294/ildisea.v2i1.58373.
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
Ackerly, Brooke A. Universal human rights in a world of difference. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Alaghbary, Gibreel Sadeq. "Ideological positioning in conflict: The United States and Egypt’s domestic political trajectory." The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict. Routledge, 2019. 83-102.
Ataöv, Türkkaya. "Double Standards in Recent American Foreign Policy." The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations 21 (1982): 133-152.
Atlas, Pierre M. "US foreign policy and the Arab Spring: Balancing values and interests." Digest of Middle East Studies 21.2 (2012): 353-385.
Baizhi, Liao. "The Reasons and the Impacts of the Egypt Revolution." Institute of West Asian and African Studies 21.2 (2011): 119-127.
Bellin, Eva. "Lessons from the jasmine and Nile revolutions: possibilities of political transformation in the Middle East." Middle East Brief 50 (2011): 1-7.
Boyle, Francis Anthony. Foundations of world order: the legalist approach to international relations (1898-1922). Duke University Press, 1999.
Brown, Nathan J. "Egypt’s Failed Transition." Journal of Democracy 24.4 (2013).
Brownlee, Jason. Democracy prevention: The politics of the US-Egyptian alliance. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Carozza, Paolo G. "Human dignity and judicial interpretation of human rights: a reply." European Journal of International Law 19.5 (2008): 931-944.
Chamberlin, Paul Thomas. The Global Offensive: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Making of the Post-Cold War Order. Oxford University Press (UK), 2012.
Collins, Victoria E., and Dawn L. Rothe. "United States support for global social justice? Foreign intervention and realpolitik in Egypt's Arab Spring." Social Justice (2012): 1-30.
Cook, Steven A. The struggle for Egypt: from Nasser to Tahrir square. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Donnelly, Jack, and Daniel J. Whelan. International human rights. Routledge, 2020.
Elgindy, Khaled. "Egypt's Troubled Transition: Elections without Democracy." The Washington Quarterly 35.2 (2012): 89-104.
El-Khawas, Mohamed A. "Tunisia's jasmine revolution: causes and impact." Mediterranean Quarterly 23.4 (2012): 1-23.
Franke, Ulrich, and Gunther Hellmann. "American pragmatism in foreign policy analysis." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. 2017.
Grewal, Kiran Kaur. The socio-political practice of human rights: Between the universal and the particular. Routledge, 2016.
Grote, Rainer, and Tilmann J. Röder. Constitutionalism, human rights, and Islam after the Arab spring. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Guilhot, Nicolas. The democracy makers: Human rights and the politics of global order. Columbia University Press, 2005.
Hahn, Peter L. Crisis and crossfire: the United States and the Middle East since 1945. Potomac Books, Inc., 2005.
Harfeld, Amy C. "Oh Righteous Delinquent One: The United States' International Human Rights Double Standard-Explanation, Example, and Avenues for Change." City University of New York Law Review 4.1 (2001): 59.
Harrelson-Stephens, Julie, and Rhonda L. Callaway. "You say you want a revolution: The Arab Spring, norm diffusion, and the human rights regime." Human Rights Review 15 (2014): 413-431.
Holmes, Amy Austin. Coups and revolutions: Mass mobilization, the Egyptian military, and the United States from Mubarak to Sisi. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Ishay, Micheline R. The Levant express: The Arab uprisings, human rights, and the future of the Middle East. Yale University Press, 2019.
Karuppannan, Ilango, and Shakila Yacob. "Malaysia-Indonesia Konfrontasi: The Struggle for Influence in the Middle East." Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 93.1 (2020): 67-89.
Kaye, Dalia Dassa, et al. Reimagining US strategy in the Middle East: Sustainable partnerships, strategic investments. Rand Corporation, 2021.
Khalil, Osamah F. "The Radical Crescent: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and the Lebanese Civil War, 1973–1978." Diplomacy & Statecraft 27.3 (2016): 496-522.
Krieg, Andreas. "Egyptian Civil-Military Relations and Egypt’s Potential Transition to Democracy." Publications in Contemporary Affairs (PiCA) (2011).
Kuznetsov, Vasily. "The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and the birth of the Arab Spring uprisings." Handbook of revolutions in the 21st century: The new waves of revolutions, and the causes and effects of disruptive political change. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022. 625-649.
Lauren, Paul Gordon. The evolution of international human rights: Visions seen. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
Levy, Jack S. "Learning and foreign policy: Sweeping a conceptual minefield." International organization 48.2 (1994): 279-312.
Malone, David, and Yuen Foong Khong, eds. Unilateralism and US foreign policy: International perspectives. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003.
Migdal, Joel S. Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. Columbia University Press, 2014.
Moravcsik, Andrew. "The paradox of US human rights policy." American exceptionalism and human rights 147 (2005): 149-50.
Mozaffari, Mehdi. "Neorealism and Structural Changes in the Gulf." Asian Development and Public Policy. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1994. 214-234.
Murray, Donette, David Brown, and Martin A. Smith. George W. Bush's foreign policies: Principles and pragmatism. Routledge, 2017.
Mutua, Makau Wa. "The ideology of human rights." International Law of Human Rights. Routledge, 2017. 103-172.
Mutua, Makau. Human rights: A political and cultural critique. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
Nowak, Manfred. Introduction to the international human rights regime. Vol. 14. Brill, 2021.
Otto, Dianne. "Rethinking universals: opening transformative possibilities in international human rights law." The Australian Year Book of International Law Online 18.1 (1998): 1-36.
Quandt, William B. "America and the Middle East: a fifty-year overview." Diplomacy in the Middle East-the international relations of regional and outside powers (2001): 59-73.
Resnick, Evan N. "Strange bedfellows: US bargaining behavior with allies of convenience." International Security 35.3 (2010): 144-184.
Saidin, Mohd Irwan Syazli. "Rethinking the'Arab Spring': The Root Causes of the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution and Egyptian January 25 Revolution." International Journal of Islamic Thought 13 (2018): 69-79.
Scherrer, Christian P. Ethnicity, nationalism and violence: Conflict management, human rights, and multilateral regimes. Routledge, 2017.
Schmidt, Brian C. "The American national interest great debate." International Relations and the First Great Debate. Routledge, 2013. 94-117.
Sharp, Jeremy M. "Egypt: Background and United States Relations." Current Politics and Economics of Africa 4.4 (2011): 519.
Sharp, Jeremy M. Egypt: background and US relations. DIANE Publishing, 2011.
Sherry, Michael. "Dead or alive: American vengeance goes global." Review of International Studies 31.S1 (2005): 245-263.
Sikkink, Kathryn. "The power of principled ideas: Human rights policies in the United States and Western Europe." Ideas and foreign policy: Beliefs, institutions, and political change 139 (1993): 144.
Snell‐Mendoza, Morice. "In Defence of oil: Britain's response to the Iraqi threat towards Kuwait, 1961." Contemporary British History 10.3 (1996): 39-62.
Snyder, Glenn H. "The security dilemma in alliance politics." World Politics 36.4 (1984): 461-495.
Steiner, Henry J., Philip Alston, and Ryan Goodman. International human rights in context: law, politics, morals: text and materials. Oxford University Press, USA, 2008.
Sulaiman, Nidzam, and K. A. T. Khalid. "Will There Be Malaysia Spring? A Comparative Assessment on Social Movements." Malaysian Journal of Communication 33.1 (2017): 43-58.
Topidi, Kyriaki, ed. Normative pluralism and human rights: Social normativities in conflict. Routledge, 2018.
Trubowitz, Peter. Defining the national interest: conflict and change in American foreign policy. University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Turner, Scott. "The dilemma of double standards in US human rights policy." Peace & Change 28.4 (2003): 524-554.
Umar, Süha. "The Rise and Fall of Turkish Foreign Policy." Horizons: Journal of International Relations and Sustainable Development 20 (2022): 208-219.
Wagner, Kim A. "Savage warfare: Violence and the rule of colonial difference in early British counterinsurgency." History Workshop Journal. Vol. 85. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Warbrick, Colin. "The Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq: Part II." The International and Comparative Law Quarterly 40.4 (1991): 965-976.
Watkins, Eric. "The unfolding US policy in the Middle East." International Affairs 73.1 (1997): 1-14.
Yegin, Mehmet. "Turkey’s reaction to the coup in Egypt in comparison with the US and Israel." Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 18.4 (2016): 407-421.
Alaghbary, Gibreel Sadeq. "Ideological positioning in conflict: The United States and Egypt’s domestic political trajectory." The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict. Routledge, 2019. 83-102.
Ataöv, Türkkaya. "Double Standards in Recent American Foreign Policy." The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations 21 (1982): 133-152.
Atlas, Pierre M. "US foreign policy and the Arab Spring: Balancing values and interests." Digest of Middle East Studies 21.2 (2012): 353-385.
Baizhi, Liao. "The Reasons and the Impacts of the Egypt Revolution." Institute of West Asian and African Studies 21.2 (2011): 119-127.
Bellin, Eva. "Lessons from the jasmine and Nile revolutions: possibilities of political transformation in the Middle East." Middle East Brief 50 (2011): 1-7.
Boyle, Francis Anthony. Foundations of world order: the legalist approach to international relations (1898-1922). Duke University Press, 1999.
Brown, Nathan J. "Egypt’s Failed Transition." Journal of Democracy 24.4 (2013).
Brownlee, Jason. Democracy prevention: The politics of the US-Egyptian alliance. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Carozza, Paolo G. "Human dignity and judicial interpretation of human rights: a reply." European Journal of International Law 19.5 (2008): 931-944.
Chamberlin, Paul Thomas. The Global Offensive: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Making of the Post-Cold War Order. Oxford University Press (UK), 2012.
Collins, Victoria E., and Dawn L. Rothe. "United States support for global social justice? Foreign intervention and realpolitik in Egypt's Arab Spring." Social Justice (2012): 1-30.
Cook, Steven A. The struggle for Egypt: from Nasser to Tahrir square. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Donnelly, Jack, and Daniel J. Whelan. International human rights. Routledge, 2020.
Elgindy, Khaled. "Egypt's Troubled Transition: Elections without Democracy." The Washington Quarterly 35.2 (2012): 89-104.
El-Khawas, Mohamed A. "Tunisia's jasmine revolution: causes and impact." Mediterranean Quarterly 23.4 (2012): 1-23.
Franke, Ulrich, and Gunther Hellmann. "American pragmatism in foreign policy analysis." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. 2017.
Grewal, Kiran Kaur. The socio-political practice of human rights: Between the universal and the particular. Routledge, 2016.
Grote, Rainer, and Tilmann J. Röder. Constitutionalism, human rights, and Islam after the Arab spring. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Guilhot, Nicolas. The democracy makers: Human rights and the politics of global order. Columbia University Press, 2005.
Hahn, Peter L. Crisis and crossfire: the United States and the Middle East since 1945. Potomac Books, Inc., 2005.
Harfeld, Amy C. "Oh Righteous Delinquent One: The United States' International Human Rights Double Standard-Explanation, Example, and Avenues for Change." City University of New York Law Review 4.1 (2001): 59.
Harrelson-Stephens, Julie, and Rhonda L. Callaway. "You say you want a revolution: The Arab Spring, norm diffusion, and the human rights regime." Human Rights Review 15 (2014): 413-431.
Holmes, Amy Austin. Coups and revolutions: Mass mobilization, the Egyptian military, and the United States from Mubarak to Sisi. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Ishay, Micheline R. The Levant express: The Arab uprisings, human rights, and the future of the Middle East. Yale University Press, 2019.
Karuppannan, Ilango, and Shakila Yacob. "Malaysia-Indonesia Konfrontasi: The Struggle for Influence in the Middle East." Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 93.1 (2020): 67-89.
Kaye, Dalia Dassa, et al. Reimagining US strategy in the Middle East: Sustainable partnerships, strategic investments. Rand Corporation, 2021.
Khalil, Osamah F. "The Radical Crescent: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and the Lebanese Civil War, 1973–1978." Diplomacy & Statecraft 27.3 (2016): 496-522.
Krieg, Andreas. "Egyptian Civil-Military Relations and Egypt’s Potential Transition to Democracy." Publications in Contemporary Affairs (PiCA) (2011).
Kuznetsov, Vasily. "The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and the birth of the Arab Spring uprisings." Handbook of revolutions in the 21st century: The new waves of revolutions, and the causes and effects of disruptive political change. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022. 625-649.
Lauren, Paul Gordon. The evolution of international human rights: Visions seen. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
Levy, Jack S. "Learning and foreign policy: Sweeping a conceptual minefield." International organization 48.2 (1994): 279-312.
Malone, David, and Yuen Foong Khong, eds. Unilateralism and US foreign policy: International perspectives. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003.
Migdal, Joel S. Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. Columbia University Press, 2014.
Moravcsik, Andrew. "The paradox of US human rights policy." American exceptionalism and human rights 147 (2005): 149-50.
Mozaffari, Mehdi. "Neorealism and Structural Changes in the Gulf." Asian Development and Public Policy. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1994. 214-234.
Murray, Donette, David Brown, and Martin A. Smith. George W. Bush's foreign policies: Principles and pragmatism. Routledge, 2017.
Mutua, Makau Wa. "The ideology of human rights." International Law of Human Rights. Routledge, 2017. 103-172.
Mutua, Makau. Human rights: A political and cultural critique. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
Nowak, Manfred. Introduction to the international human rights regime. Vol. 14. Brill, 2021.
Otto, Dianne. "Rethinking universals: opening transformative possibilities in international human rights law." The Australian Year Book of International Law Online 18.1 (1998): 1-36.
Quandt, William B. "America and the Middle East: a fifty-year overview." Diplomacy in the Middle East-the international relations of regional and outside powers (2001): 59-73.
Resnick, Evan N. "Strange bedfellows: US bargaining behavior with allies of convenience." International Security 35.3 (2010): 144-184.
Saidin, Mohd Irwan Syazli. "Rethinking the'Arab Spring': The Root Causes of the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution and Egyptian January 25 Revolution." International Journal of Islamic Thought 13 (2018): 69-79.
Scherrer, Christian P. Ethnicity, nationalism and violence: Conflict management, human rights, and multilateral regimes. Routledge, 2017.
Schmidt, Brian C. "The American national interest great debate." International Relations and the First Great Debate. Routledge, 2013. 94-117.
Sharp, Jeremy M. "Egypt: Background and United States Relations." Current Politics and Economics of Africa 4.4 (2011): 519.
Sharp, Jeremy M. Egypt: background and US relations. DIANE Publishing, 2011.
Sherry, Michael. "Dead or alive: American vengeance goes global." Review of International Studies 31.S1 (2005): 245-263.
Sikkink, Kathryn. "The power of principled ideas: Human rights policies in the United States and Western Europe." Ideas and foreign policy: Beliefs, institutions, and political change 139 (1993): 144.
Snell‐Mendoza, Morice. "In Defence of oil: Britain's response to the Iraqi threat towards Kuwait, 1961." Contemporary British History 10.3 (1996): 39-62.
Snyder, Glenn H. "The security dilemma in alliance politics." World Politics 36.4 (1984): 461-495.
Steiner, Henry J., Philip Alston, and Ryan Goodman. International human rights in context: law, politics, morals: text and materials. Oxford University Press, USA, 2008.
Sulaiman, Nidzam, and K. A. T. Khalid. "Will There Be Malaysia Spring? A Comparative Assessment on Social Movements." Malaysian Journal of Communication 33.1 (2017): 43-58.
Topidi, Kyriaki, ed. Normative pluralism and human rights: Social normativities in conflict. Routledge, 2018.
Trubowitz, Peter. Defining the national interest: conflict and change in American foreign policy. University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Turner, Scott. "The dilemma of double standards in US human rights policy." Peace & Change 28.4 (2003): 524-554.
Umar, Süha. "The Rise and Fall of Turkish Foreign Policy." Horizons: Journal of International Relations and Sustainable Development 20 (2022): 208-219.
Wagner, Kim A. "Savage warfare: Violence and the rule of colonial difference in early British counterinsurgency." History Workshop Journal. Vol. 85. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Warbrick, Colin. "The Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq: Part II." The International and Comparative Law Quarterly 40.4 (1991): 965-976.
Watkins, Eric. "The unfolding US policy in the Middle East." International Affairs 73.1 (1997): 1-14.
Yegin, Mehmet. "Turkey’s reaction to the coup in Egypt in comparison with the US and Israel." Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 18.4 (2016): 407-421.