Rights Beautiful Collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik elitism; and, (iii) Collective recognition of the real need for self-reform on the basis of self-reliance and the right to development, so that the endogenous sources of knowledge and creativity could be revitalized and developed as the basis upon which modern knowledge could also be effectively and appropriately adapted and assimilated.2 All these, to be sure, come more or less within the purview of this conference. Only that it is so vitally important as to deserve to be emphasized and put into a coherent policy and strategic plan of common action. As a matter of fact, initiatives have already been taken on the part of local peoples and communities themselves the world over. So much so that there have now been emerging the new concept of collective rights based on the community ways of life, and naturally in a great variety of forms and practices. This current trend of cultural pluralism is admittedly the new phenomenon in the Western self-proclaimed style of universal, individualistic and mono-cultural sphere of influence in the field of human rights. It is inevitably bound to meet with powerful resistance and opposition, or destruction if possible. Since it obviously not only poses a spiritual and intellectual challenge, but also stands in the way to the ultimate goal of domination and hegemony inherent in the Western civilization ever since after the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions centuries ago. This is indeed the real “clash of civilizations”, to borrow Samuel Huntington’s notorious phrase, though in entirely different context of Globalization vs. Re-localization. Or, in the more familiar political economy jargons, Global Totalitarianism vs. Grassroots Emancipation and Democracy. This trend of cultural confrontation is most likely to be characteristic of and long lasting into the 21st century. So let us try to 2 Saneh Chamarik, “Technological Self-Reliance and Cultural Freedom”, in C.G, Weeramantry, ed., Human Rights and Scientific and Technological Development, Tokyo, United Nations University Press, 1990, p. 56. OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THAILAND 27