Covering the human rights situations in 11 of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries, the evidence presented here suggests that economic growth alone has not led to greater human rights protection. Yet human rights was the issue that would not go away for Asia in 1995 as it became an economic issue, a determinant of aid and an irritant to trade from Burma to Indonesia. Workers rights practices in the region intensified debate over the desirability of a "social clause" in multilateral trade arrangements, and human rights abuses led to demands at home and abroad for increased corporate responsibility on the part of foreign business as investment in the region grew.
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