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entitled simply because she or he is a human being' (Icelandic Human Rights
Centre, n.d). In general terms, however, human rights enable human beings
to fulfill their life in a respectful and dignified manner. Human beings gain
these rights by virtue of being humans (Tremblay et al. , 2008).
In contrast to the human rights ideology embraced in the Western world,
stemming from Locke's natural law, socialist and Asian traditions define
human rights differently. For instance, both the former Soviet Union under
Marxist doctrine and traditional Asian countries place emphasis on the soci-
ety or state rather than individuals. For the Soviet Union, the right (i.e. the
product of collective will of people) is granted by the state (i.e. the perfect
embodiment of the Soviet people). The government will play a parental role
in guiding, educating and controlling individuals in order to protect rights.
And individuals are expected to prioritise the needs of the collective before
the individual needs (Lambelet, 1989). Bell (1996) argues many East Asian
nations share the belief expressed by Lee Kuan Yew, a Singaporean politician,
that to save people from dire poverty or other devastating circumstances, a
right must be temporarily compromised. East Asian nations claim certain rights
are inevitably curtailed to secure more basic rights for survival. Generally,
East Asian populations are willing to limit individual freedom to attain more
general social goods. Measures for prevention and punishments are consid-
ered reasonable trade-offs for social safety and order. The concept of 'filial
piety under the influence of Confucianism' endorses respect and individual
duties to others and plays an important role in many East Asian nations
(Bell, 1996).
Although this chapter examines human rights discourses from more lib-
eral Western perspectives, it is necessary to be mindful and sensitive to argu-
ments from non-Western nations. These nations may not agree with Western
views and many human rights violations in tourism are observed in such
nations. More on this point will be discussed later in the chapter.
Types and examples of human rights
Attempts to classify human rights have also attracted debate as to what
(which categories of rights) and how (what order of hierarchy) they should
be classified. Despite these debates, human rights have been classified under
three categories (often referred to as 'Generations' representing the three
ideals of the 1789 French Revolution): (i) liberty; (ii) equality and (iii) frater-
nity (Tremblay et al. , 2008: 6). Karel Vasak, a renowned French legal lumi-
nary and one time secretary-general of the International Institute of Human
Rights was the scholar whose work led to the widespread use of these clas-
sifications in rights discourses (Tremblay et al. , 2008). Under Vasakian clas-
sifications, human rights fall under the 'First Generation Rights' (representing
liberty) and are basic civil and political rights (e.g. rights to association,
free speech and participation in government, and political processes)
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