harmony essential for world huamn rights

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HARMONY ESSENTIAL FOR WORLD HUAMN RIGHTS

HARMONY ESSENTIAL FOR WORLD HUMAN RIGHTSBy Francis C. W. Fung, PH.D.

In the U.S. media human rights is used as a one sided absolutestandard rather than relative progress to judge developing countries

who are striving to improve. At the same time there is a noticeablelack of self criticism of Americas own human rights records. This

double standard often leave many developing nations suspicious of

American motives. Even though seeds of human rights are containedin teachings of major world cultures, its development to keep pace

with modern world is rather recent. Essential human ideals such as

harmony, freedom and democracy, judging from world cultural historycertainly all predated and had far more thorough study by many

cultures old and new than human rights. Just as harmony anddemocracy, human rights is also a broad principle indeed. As much as

is generally agreed by the civilized world that human rights isimportant and necessary, as a universal common value its agreed

scope and its method of implementations are still developing. This lackof consensus is obvious from the current great debate that takes place

in U.N. and on world stage.

For representative East vs. West debates on human rights, one is

referred to two recent excellent papers. First one authored by Prof.Albert H.Y. Chen, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong,

entitled Chinese Cultural Tradition and Modern Human Rights. Second

one is a featured story published Nov. 24, 2006 by Peoples DailyOnline, entitled Harmony: Chinas Creation to Promote Human

Rights. It is fair to point out, elements for and against human rightswere contained in both East and West cultural heritage. The modern

development of human rights in the West is not cultural specific to the

West but has universal significance and general applicability for allcultures. In fact the ideal of universal benevolence and universal

education were the corner stones of Confucian teaching. The Chinesecivil examination was the first historical large scale comprehensive

system to provide equal advancement opportunity to all its citizens.

In the first paper, Prof. Chen concluded Thus it would be possible for

us to rehabilitate the virtues and insights of Confucianism and otherprecious elements in the rich and great Chinese cultural tradition which

modern Chinese deserve to feel proud of, and simultaneously work for
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the further democratization and better protection of human rights inChina of the 21st century. This, I believe, is the way forward for China,

and the lesson finally learnt from the immense sufferings which theChinese people have endured in the throes of modernization in the last

two centuries. This on going process of improving human rights in

different degrees, with the progress of modern human society isapplicable to all other nations and U. S. is no exception. In fact as the

most prosperous major nation in the world, the U.S. massive penalcorrection system failed to stop the crime rate from being the highest

in the world. This is a sign of societal imbalance in education vs. penal

correction in the application of human rights principle.

In the second paper, Dong Yunhu, Secretary General of the ChinaSociety for Human Rights Study also rightly pointed out The value of

human rights is universal, but the dynamic of its implementation

varies in different countries. The Hon. Makarim Wibisono, IndonesianAmbassador and Permanent Representative to the U.N., added The

idea of harmony being connected to human rights is significant andrelevant to Asian culture, which are largely rooted in Confucianism.

Harmony certainly can render the concept of human rights moreapproachable to many who are not familiar with the notion. Prof.

James Williams of North Carolina University not untypical of U.S. main

stream thinking said In Asian countries at large, governments arekeen to advocate cultural factors playing a role in universal rights,

acting on the principle that the individual rights conflict with a widersocial harmony and stability, citing Asian values as contradictory to a

Western notion of universality. This type of thinking is not in touchwith Asian reality when the debate is no longer in the generalacceptance of human rights but in the scope, the dynamic of its

implementation and the historical setting.

Implementation of human rights in a complex society of vast

population is a study in engineering system analysis. The key lies indynamic balance of a multitude of parameters. Human rights progress

requires painstaking monitoring and iteration by the willing society.Casual and judgmental statements from the U.S. media and

government often miss the point and are counter productive. Chinasbirth control policy to prevent over population is an overwhelmingnecessity not just for China but for world development sustainability.

But it conveniently became the target of perennial attacks by the U. S.media. That is why a higher order universal criteria such as harmony

as common value, may be used to judge the progress of human rightsin some cases where global development sustainability are at issue.

Harmony is essential to world human rights development because it is


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natures order and it prescribes dynamic balance in engineeringsystem analysis. Harmony includes the universal common value of

tolerance, respect, equity and most of all humility. It can also be calledthe concept of scientific development for sustainable development.

Harmony consensus as a standard naturally comes to mind when

todays world conflict continue to exist despite well intentions frommajor religions and intentional laws. To quote Dong Yunhu Social

harmony relies on justice and the right to development because bothpoverty and injustice are the roots of disharmony in the world.

The recent Virginia Tech massacre and similar frequent mass murderoccurrences in the U.S. are the consequence of the governments

inability to enforce stricter gun control laws. Most civilized world seesthe proliferation of guns in a society is a threat to the majority citizens

human rights. The American governments reluctance to control the

unnecessary spread of guns is a left over problem unique to the U.S.historical setting. It is up to the U.S. to solve its own disharmony. No

other countries are able to enforce it from outside short of invasion,even though the spread of guns by American citizens also endanger

world human rights. Individual nations human rights must be built onits firm sovereignty foundation. A country not respecting the

sovereignty of other nations by advocating overt forceful regime

changes is in serious violation of world human rights. The tragiccatastrophic Iraqi civilian sufferings, as a result of U.S. invasion, is a

lesson of violation of human rights lacking harmony consideration tobe learned by all.

In a recent book titled Keeping faith in our values in a dangerousworld, Anne-Marie Slaughter, the renowned Dean of Princeton

University Woodrow Wilson Institute, advocated including tolerance,humility and faith into American system of values. She also suggested

that American practice value based foreign policy to improve our

image, so that our spreading of human rights and democracy can bemore effective. Her theory is well founded but short of the more

universal ideal of harmony diplomacy and mutual win-win developmentalready in practice by parts of the world. Harmony is an ancient ideal

that belongs to the world. It is accepted by many cultures East andWest. It is an extensive system of common values and certainly moreinclusive than just adding tolerance, humility and faith to American

value system.

One can also have faith in harmony, which in time will work its way byresonance. The truth of harmony diplomacy includes the spirit of

working with all nations in the world. Between any two countries there


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exist complementary advantages for mutual win- win development.Preconception of incompatibility is counter to harmony ideal of

tolerance, acceptance and respect of others. It also negates the valueof humility in practicing tolerance and acceptance. Madam Slaughter

proposed working with NATO nations, English speaking and other

major nations for the propagation of American values and value basedforeign policy. Yet in her list of preferred nations, many significant

nations including China, Russia and other obvious nations who havedisagreements with us are noticeably absent. World human rights

practice must also include respect of all cultures.

The scope of human rights also grows with social and economic

modernization of a society and must be in harmony with the societyand nature. From the very beginning nature also imposes boundaries

on our human rights aspirations. Harmony as dynamic balance is

natures order. It exists as a higher order guide applicable to affairs offamily, society, nations and the world. When there is no harmony as in

todays confrontational world, extremism results and human rights arethreatened. Human rights ideal is a universal truism but we must allow

cultural diversity in scope, cultural emphasis and historical sequenceddifference in implementation within a well planned engineering system.

As much as there is engineering system analysis in the implementation

of human rights in a nation there needs to be the same considerationin world human rights.

The world needs harmony diplomacy through dialogue and consensus

to maintain world human rights. It is within the realm of U.N. and notthe judgmental whim of any one nation, no matter how powerful weare. The weak in their anguish has limited means must be persuaded

to refrain from suicide mode. The powerful, with dominant media andmilitary, needs to practice humility. To minimize confrontation through

extremism and unilateralism it is time for all to advocate harmony

diplomacy and win-win mutual development. Thus harmony isessential to world human rights as a supranational universal guidance

and system engineering analysis milestones in the dynamicimplementation of world human rights.

Francis Fung

MY BOOKS ON HARMONY RENAISSANCE, HARMONY DIPLOMACYAND HARMONY CONSENSUS ARE AVAILABLE FROM

WWW.AMAZON.COM SEARCH FRANCIS C W FUNG

harmony essential for world huamn rights

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