Implementing the Networked Approach

: Regional Human Rights Education in Asia and Sustainable Social Infrastructures

This paper argues that Asia’s economic growth and future prosperity is threatened by its lack of social infrastructure, represented by its ongoing failure to create a regional human rights mechanism. Sustainable development requires social infrastructure, not just technical and economic reforms. This shortcoming is compounded by the looming challenge of the fourth industrial revolution, which is making creative human resources more important than ever. This paper proposes the networked approach, a polycentric process that transforms human rights from high politics to low politics, as the most pragmatic solution in Asia. Drawing upon the case of Asia’s gender digital divide, it is argued that the networked approach can be applied from the bottom-up, especially in classrooms and workplaces, by interjecting human rights norms and practices into technical capacity building efforts for the region’s workers and citizens, especially women. This integrated capacity building is an effective way to enhance economic resilience and ensure a sustainable future.