Abstract
Stunning evidence of Asian roots of the Universal Declaration in the form of Asian constitutional provisions is presented in this chapter. The UN Division of Human Rights drew upon ten Asian constitutions when it assembled the first draft of the future UDHR. Strong traces of the new humanism enshrined in the UDHR were already found in many Asian constitutions at the time of the drafting of the UDHR. Provisions from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Siam (now Thailand), Syria, and Turkey are outlined in this chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
Clauspeter Hill and Joerg Menzel, Constitutionalism in Southeast Asia . Vol. 1. National Constitutions/ASEAN Charter . (Singapore: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2009).
- 2.
Marford Angeles and Michael Yusingco, “ASEAN Charter : deepening constitutionalism in Southeast Asia,” Asian Currents. (Association of Asian Studies of Australia. 1 September 2017) http://asaa.asn.au/asean-charter-deepening-constitutionalism-southeast-asia/.
- 3.
- 4.
Chen, Albert H.Y. (Ed.) “The achievement of constitutionalism in Asia: moving beyond ‘constitutions without constitutionalism.’” In Constitutionalism in Asia in the Early Twenty-First Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014) p. 1–32.
- 5.
Chen, Ibid.
- 6.
See, for example, Harshan Kumarasingham, Ed., Constitution-making in Asia: Decolonisation and State-Building in the Aftermath of the British Empire. (London and New York: Routledge, 2016).
- 7.
Lawrence Beer Ed. “Preface,” Constitutionalism in Asia: Asian Views of the American Influence. in Occasional Papers/Reprint Series on Contemporary Asian Studies, NUMBER 6–1988 (89). Beer noted by 1988 that “Asian nation-states now share adoption of a government institution invented by the United States in the eighteenth century, the single-document constitution setting forth a country’s public principles, its governmental structures, and the relationships between its leaders and governed” (p. iii).
- 8.
Hongyi Chen, Constitutionalism in Asia in the Early Twenty-First Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014) p. 7.
- 9.
Domenico Amerante, “Post-modern Constitutionalism In Asia: Perspectives From The Indian Experience,” NUJS Law Review, April to June 2013, p. 215. pp. 213–228.
- 10.
Lawrence Beer, “Introduction: Constitutionalism in Asia and the United States ,” Constitutionalism in Asia: Asian Views of the American Influence. in Occasional Papers / Reprint Series on Contemporary Asian Studies, NUMBER 6–1988 (89) p. 8.
- 11.
See, generally, Albert H.Y. Chen (2014) Constitutionalism in Asia in the Early Twenty-first century. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
- 12.
See generally Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: A History of the World’s Largest Democracy (PanMacmillan, 2017).
- 13.
Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg and James Melton, “Imagining a world without the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” 6 September 2017, available online at http://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/upload_documents/Zachary%20Elkins%20Paper%20September%202017%20v.2.0%20%282%29.pdf
- 14.
For recent developments in constitutionalism and rights in Asia, see Wen-Chen Chang, Li-ann Thio, Kevin YL Tan, Jiunn-rong Yeh, Constitutionalism in Asia: Cases and Materials (West Sussex, UK: Hart Publishing, 2014); Kevin YL Tan and Li-ann Thio (Eds.) (forthcoming). Constitutionalism in Southeast Asia . (West Sussex, UK: Hart Publishing, n.d.).
References
Amerante, Domenico. “Post-modern Constitutionalism In Asia: Perspectives From The Indian Experience,” NUJS Law Review, April to June 2013, p. 215. pp. 213–228.
Angeles, Marford and Michael Yusingco, “ASEAN Charter: deepening constitutionalism in Southeast Asia,” Asian Currents. (Association of Asian Studies of Australia. 1 September, 2017) http://asaa.asn.au/asean-charter-deepening-constitutionalism-southeast-asia/
Beer, Lawrence Ed. “Preface,” Constitutionalism in Asia: Asian Views of the American Influence. in Occasional Papers / Reprint Series on Contemporary Asian Studies, NUMBER 6–1988 (89).
Chang, Wen-Chen, Li-ann Thio, Kevin YL Tan, Jiunn-rong Yeh, Constitutionalism in Asia: Cases and Materials (West Sussex, UK: Hart Publishing, 2014); Kevin YL Tan and Li-ann Thio (Eds.) (forthcoming). Constitutionalism in Southeast Asia. (West Sussex, UK: Hart Publishing, n.d.).
Chen, Albert H.Y. “The achievement of constitutionalism in Asia: moving beyond ‘constitutions without constitutionalism’.” In Constitutionalism in Asia in the Early Twenty-First Century, Chen, Albert H.Y. Ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014) p. 1–32.
Elkins, Zachary, Tom Ginsburg and James Melton, “Imagining a world without the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” 6 September 2017, available online at http://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/upload_documents/Zachary%20Elkins%20Paper%20September%202017%20v.2.0%20%282%29.pdf
Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi: A History of the World’s Largest Democracy (PanMacmillan, 2017).
Hill, Clauspeter and Joerg Menzel, Constitutionalism in Southeast Asia. Vol. 1. National Constitutions/ASEAN Charter. (Singapore: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2009)
Kumarasingham, Harshan Ed., Constitution-making in Asia: Decolonisation and State-Building in the Aftermath of the British Empire. (London and New York: Routledge, 2016).
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Ramcharan, R., Ramcharan, B. (2019). Asian Foundations. In: Asia and the Drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2104-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2104-7_5
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