The Bangkok Declaration

In one line

The Bangkok Declaration reaffirms universality while asking that particularities be borne in mind, rejects conditionality and political pressure, presses indivisibility and the right to development, and its central paragraph reappears in Vienna's paragraph 5 with the obligation attached.

What it was

A regional preparatory meeting for the World Conference, convened pursuant to a General Assembly resolution of 1991, attended by ministers and representatives of Asian States, with the rapporteur an Indian jurist.

It is a declaration of States, not of a civilisation, and the distinction matters: it records what Asian governments agreed at a preparatory meeting, and non-governmental organisations meeting in parallel produced a different text.

What it actually says

It affirms universality

Paragraph 7: stress the universality, objectivity and non-selectivity of all human rights and the need to avoid the application of double standards in the implementation of human rights and its politicization, and that no violation of human rights can be justified.

Read the closing clause. "No violation of human rights can be justified" is in the same document that is cited as the charter of relativism, and quoting it is the fastest way to complicate the standard account.

And the preamble reaffirms commitment to the principles contained in the Charter and the Universal Declaration.

It asks that context be borne in mind

Paragraph 8: recognize that while human rights are universal in nature, they must be considered in the context of a dynamic and evolving process of international norm-setting, bearing in mind the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds.

Set that beside Vienna's paragraph 5, third sentence. The words bearing in mind the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds are carried over almost verbatim, and Vienna adds the clause the Bangkok text does not contain: it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

That is the single most useful comparison in this module. Bangkok obtained the concession; Vienna accepted it and attached the obligation, in the same sentence, so the concession could never again be quoted alone.

It presses sovereignty and objects to conditionality

Paragraph 4: discourage any attempt to use human rights as a conditionality for extending development assistance.

Paragraph 5: respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference in the internal affairs of States, and the non-use of human rights as an instrument of political pressure.

Paragraph 6: all countries, large and small, have the right to determine their political systems, control and freely utilize their resources, and freely pursue their development.