EDITORIAL: Trend away from universal values poses serious threat to world

The abstract word “universality,” meaning the quality or state of being applicable to all people or things irrespective of time and space, can help us think about the world in the coming decade.

The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are intended to be “universal in the sense of embodying a universally shared common global vision of progress.”

They include, for example, ending hunger and poverty, ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, achieving gender equality, reducing inequality, and taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impact.

They form the core of a global agenda for “transforming” the world by 2030.

When countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, they pledged to ensure “no one will be left behind,” underscoring the universality of the goals.

Although all U.N. member states adopted the 2030 Agenda in 2015, progress toward the goals has been disappointing during the four years since then.

At the first SDG Summit, held in New York in September last year, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned about the slow progress, saying, “We are far from where we need to be.”

The summit adopted a political declaration that said the nations are “launching an ambitious and accelerated response to reach our common vision by 2030, and pledging to make the coming decade one of action and delivery.”

One important viewpoint for assessing the state of the world in the 2020s will be how it is faring in its efforts to achieve these goals.

DISPUTE OVER LIBERALISM

The terms “human rights, the dignity of people, the rule of law and democracy” represent universal values that were established in modern Western society. They are still widely upheld and are cited in the SDGs as key elements of a future the world should build for itself.

They are the “fruits of the age-old struggle of man to be free” in the words of Article 97 of Japan’s Constitution. It describes how “the fundamental human rights” guaranteed by the Constitution have become established as essential values.

Even negative aspects of modern times, such as imperialism and colonial rule by major powers, do not belittle the tremendously important roles these values have played as universal measures of progress made by a society.

The protection of human rights, for instance, was first internationally recognized as a universal moral imperative by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948. It has since been expanded to protect the rights of women, children and sexual minorities.

Nearly two decades into the 21st century, however, the global trend toward embracing these universal values appears to be losing momentum.

We have seen disturbing signs of a dangerous shift away from these universal values in various parts of the world in recent years.

In June last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking about the need to take a tough stance toward migrants, said in a newspaper interview that “the liberal idea has become obsolete” and “comes into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population.”

The word “liberal” has many meanings. Here we use it to refer to the attitude of placing high value on freedom, human rights, tolerance and diversity.

Putin’s remarks had international repercussions. Then European Council President Donald Tusk rebutted Putin’s claims by saying Europeans are committed to “firmly and univocally defend and promote liberal democracy” and argued that the things that are obsolete are “authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs.”

There is a global and growing backlash against freedom and democracy.

Putin has been promoting authoritarian nationalism, while U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hostile stance toward immigrants and is sticking to his “America First” agenda.

In Europe, the wave of xenophobic, rightist populism that has rocked the region’s political landscape in recent years is showing no signs of receding.

The continued protests in Hong Kong are a battle with the Chinese Communist Party regime over the value of freedom.

The end of the Cold War three decades ago was touted as a victory of the Western world’s values of freedom and democracy over authoritarianism in the Eastern bloc.

However, it has not led to the universalization of Western liberal democracy, as some had predicted.

UNIQUE, INHERENT CULTURE, TRADITION?

How about Japan?

In his foreign policy remarks, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe likes to show respect for universal values. His familiar refrain is “upholding democracy, placing a priority on the rule of law and protecting human rights and freedom.”

But his behavior at home has been blatantly at odds with his words.

The Abe administration has been going all out to avoid Diet debate on sensitive policy issues and running roughshod on the principle of checks and balances.

His government has also repeatedly attacked the news media and threatened the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression. And it has not hesitated to give discriminatory and aggressive treatments to critics and minorities.

There have been many arguments, both within and outside the administration, about history based on old-fashioned nationalistic views, and also about diplomatic issues based on exclusionist, ultranationalist views.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s draft amendments to the Constitution announced in 2012, although old news, are symptomatic of this trend.

The draft deleted the phrase “a universal principle of mankind upon which this Constitution is founded,” which, in the preamble to the Constitution, refers to the principle of democratic government.

Instead, the preamble in the LDP draft included such phrases as “value peace and harmony” and “protect the beautiful homeland.” The preamble in the draft is awash with expressions that indicate special value placed on Japan’s “unique and inherent culture” and “good tradition.”

The LDP’s draft for rewriting the Constitution and the Abe administration’s behavior are clearly in line with the global trend way from “universal values.”

TUG OF WAR WITH UNPREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES

The world faces a crucial choice.

Will it continue to use the various ideas and values that have been driving modern society and the postwar world as key tools to change the reality of the world full of intractable problems? Or will it forget their value and effectiveness and thoughtlessly discard them?

A tug of war between the two scenarios will unfold throughout the 2020s with unpredictable results.

“We can be the first generation to end extreme poverty … and the last generation to be threatened by climate change,” the United Nations says in promoting the SDGs.

These lofty ideals upheld by the United Nations are there for people to use to overcome the urgent crisis the world is facing right now.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 1