ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is proposing to create a new transnational human rights organization. Can it really work?
As the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) start to celebrate the fortieth birthday of the organization, steps are being taken to add a human rights component to its charter. ASEAN has historically focused on the principle of non-intervention in other member states interests – that has been the only way to keep delegates from each other’s throats at many meetings. The policy has been successful in that ASEAN continues to exist and to provide a forum in which government figures and technocrats can speak to each other and make agreements in various areas without condoning what is going on in a partner country. Necessarily, therefore, economic issues have been given precedence over social and political ones. Progress has been made, albeit slowly and haltingly and in the face of considerable difficulties.
However, with forty winters under their belts, the ASEAN leadership is looking to upgrade its abilities to effect change for the good in the region by adding a Human Rights arm. The way in which this is being managed is typical of ASEAN politics and indicates why human rights bodies are needed in the first place – announcements are received from the seat of power as if they were the pronouncements of Zeus without any attempt to include any of the 500 million citizens of the region in any consultation process. Imagine a human rights body without the involvement of the people. Nevertheless, such a body could have a profound impact for the good, when the human rights situation in the region is considered.
The biggest issue of course is with Myanmar (Burma), where ethnic minorities are targeted with systematic rape and forced porterage programs, while political prisoners languish in prisons or under house arrest. Yet Malaysia and Singapore also labour under repressive internal security legislation which may be called upon when necessary, which are set to be copied by henchmen of the Thai junta. Vietnam and Laos do not permit any form of political plurality, although this situation seems likely to change as progress towards economic development continues. Brunei, meanwhile, is an absolute monarchy which permits little if any opposition to state policy. Indeed, there is scarcely a member of ASEAN that has what might be considered a haven for human rights.
Still, there is a long way to go before an ASEAN human rights body comes into being, let alone having one with teeth and a robust mandate to seek out and confront problems wherever they might be found. At least it is a start.
