Privatizing human rights initiatives: How Asian countries can avoid the flaws in the U.S. model

It is not an auspicious time for path-breaking human rights legislation in the United States. We indisputably reside in an era of increasing privatization. While the traditional source of human rights initiatives has been the public sector, in the U.S. political climate, the private sector may offer more promise for human rights entrepreneurship than the government. Nonetheless, privatization presents a seriously flawed model because it lacks the gravitas of a public sector model and because the privatization model is driven by an ideological perspective. A pragmatic multi-dimensional approach to developing human rights initiatives offers more promise of success.