Buddhism and Human Rights

It is difficult to think of a more urgent question for Buddhism in the late twentieth century than human rights. The political, ethical and philosophical questions surrounding human rights are debated vigorously in political and intellectual circles throughout the world. Yet despite its contemporary significance, the subject has merited little attention in mainstream academic research and publication in the field of Buddhist studies. If Buddhism wishes to address the issues which are of concern to today’s global community, it must begin to ask itself new questions alongside the old ones. The papers in this collection were presented at the first online conference sponsored by the Journal of Buddhist Ethics from 1-13 October 1995. In the context of Human Rights, which was the theme of this conference, an important preliminary question would seem to be whether traditional Buddhism has any understanding of what is meant by ‘human rights’ at all. Even if it is felt that this objection is overstated, and that the issue of human rights does not have a legitimate place on the Buddhist agenda, there would still remain the separate and no less difficult question of how human rights were to be grounded in Buddhist doctrine, particularly in the light of the fact that the tradition itself provides little precedent or guidance in this area. Questions of the above kind are discussed from a variety of perspectives in the papers in this volume.