1 / Asian Values " and the Universality of Human Rights

Abstract

public and private employment, but it is also right for the state to accommodate to a degree civil institutions that assign women a subordinate st atus or otherwise unfairly discriminate on the basis of gender, race, or sexual orientation. For example, churches that exclude the ordination of women are not legally prohibited, nor should they be. Even if such exclusions would not exist in a world of perfect gender justice, any effort to prohibit them would be indefensible. But the indefensibility of such a policy should not lead us to conclude that the state should avoid taking sides in the dispute between traditionalists and proponent s of gender equality . The state has legitimately taken sides with the proponents. When, if, and how existing injustices are to be accommodated is a political problem of the highest importance. Professor Galston has spoken eloquently and insightfully of the need for principled accommodation with those whose views about justice we liberals regard as seriously mistaken. I have spoken, less eloquently but I hope no less cogently, of the liberal state's obli gation to take sides against injustice even as it must make principled accommodations with those who conscientiously dissent from a liberal conception of justice.