Any discussion of human rights in post-colonial countries of Asia conducted from the perspective of Western civilization faces many obstacles, particularly related to existing differences, or even cultural barriers and different traditions. Postcolonial states, despite the remaining remnants of the colonial era-visible in their legal systems, that still contain normative acts adopted before obtaining sovereignty – very firmly resist to the adoption of the universal catalog of human rights set out in the UN Covenants, as well as the use of standards in their observance that are compatible with those made within the United Nations. Both – the so-called ideology of Asian values, as well as the concept of the ASEAN community is not conducive to the creation of international binding legal framework and does not allow (or even leading in the future) to create a universal system of human rights protection. On the contrary – it leads to the deepening ideological differences or even philosophical, in the further development of democracy among Western countries and Asia. From the perspective of European constitutional law, it may be interesting to see the arguments of post-colonial Asia judges on the issue of the division of power in the context of judicial activism and the protection of constitutional values. The purpose of this publication is to present the views of Singapore’s judiciary in connection with the reforms introduced in 2013 that abolish the mandatory death penalty for certain crimes together with the possibility of replacing it by a court decision with life imprisonment and flogging.

Protection of human rights in selected postcolonial Asian countries –  current problems

Any discussion of human rights in post-colonial countries in Asia conducted from the perspective of Western civilization faces many obstacles, particularly related to the existing cultural differences, or even barriers and different traditions. Postcolonial states, despite the remaining remnants of the colonial era – visible example in their legal system, which still contains normative acts adopted before obtaining sovereignty – very firmly based universal adoption of the catalog of human rights as defined in the UN covenants, as well as the application of the standards in their compliance, which would be in line with those elaborated within the framework of the UN. The adopted ideology of so-called „Asian values” leads to a re-widening ideological differences, or even philosophical, in the further development of democracy between Western countries and Asia. At the same time, this gives rise to extract new direction of research, which is to analyze the development of human rights in post-colonial countries of Asia and the West, the study of unknown problems that will come up in relation to the existence of the doctrine of „Asian values”. The aim of this publication is to present current issues related to the debate on human rights, which recently appeared in Singapore and India.