Is Asean toothless in tackling human rights violations?

The just concluded 42nd Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Phuket, Thailand begs the question: Is Asean capable of transforming itself into a regional organisation that can effectively tackle human rights issues in the region.

Asean's image as a government's club continues to be questioned amidst claims by its top officials that it wants to make it more ‘people-oriented'.

A network of more than 60 human rights organisations across the region, many civil society actors and observers are now wondering if engagement on human rights with Asean is a fruitless struggle.

From July 2008 - July 2009, civic groups submitted documents from dozens of national and regional conferences recommending Asean put in place a mechanism to look into human rights violations.

This was to enable it to conduct fact finding investigations, receive complaints from human rights victims and organisations, and reviews human rights situations in the member countries.

These recommendations were also put forward at meetings in the regional interface between a high level Panel and civil society groups in Manila in September 2008 and also in Kuala Lumpur in March 2009.

The Asean Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICOHR), adopted by the Asean foreign ministers on July 20 in Phuket, however, did not honour the recommendations.

PM Abhisit Vejajiva, the Thai Prime Minister and Asean chair rebutted criticisms of AICOHR, saying that the body serves twin purposes of promoting and protecting human rights.

The mandate made public by the Asean secretariat, was mainly to promote human rights awareness and provides services related to it.

Disappointed

There was no mention of how it will redress and what action AICOHR will take if a member state engaged in massive human rights violations.

"We are disappointed to see that the final version of the protection mandate," said Rafendi Djamin, the convener of the SAPA Task Force on Asean and Human Rights.

"For any regional human rights commission to function effectively, it at least must have a minimum protection mandate such as conducting country visits to areas of human rights violations," said Djamin.

There are also doubts AICOHR will be able to open up to civil society groups working on social justice and human rights issues.

The commission only gives room to 50 organisations that Asean recognises as affiliated bodies like the Asean Chess Confederation, Asean Cosmetic Association, Asean Vegetable Oils Club, to name just a few.

While Asean officials praised themselves for taking such a progressive initiative, they must take note that Asean falls far behind Europe, Africa, and the Americas with regards to human rights..

These three regions have their ownl commissions capable of conducting investigations on human rights violations.

They also have the European Court of Human Rights (set up in 1959), Inter-American Court of Human Rights (set up in 1979), and African Court for Human and Peoples' Rights (set up in 2004) to ensure that the ruling of the courts is legally binding to protect human rights victims.

Asean Court for Human Rights a taboo subject

The discussion for the creating an Asean Court for Human Rights, something civil society groups long for, is a taboo subject among Asean policymakers.

To Watshlah Naidu, a women's rights advocate with the International Women's Rights Action Watch, Asean needs a reality check.

"The region is packed with human rights violations, ranging from extrajudicial executions and women's rights violated through labour exploitation, trafficking, and sexual exploitation", said Naidu.

Most importantly, Asean continues to be unable to resolve the worsening human rights crisis in Burma, an Asean member since 1997.

With a weak AICOHR, how can Asean tackle ethnic nationalities who are being oppressed by a military regime and the continuing detention of more than 2,000 political prisoners, including the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Asean and AICOHR should be prepared to answer to its people and the international community if it fails to strike the balance between human rights promotion and protection.

The writer is an analyst on Southeast Asian affairs. He is taking his postgraduate studies at the Department of Political Science, University College London under the Joint/Japan World Bank Graduate Scholarship Programme.