Asean Rights Declaration Below Standard, Advocates Say

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, speaks with ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan, Jakarta, Sept. 4, 2012.

Supporters of the declaration say it is necessary to help Asean states have a norm for human rights.

06 September 2012

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer

WASHINGTON DC - Asean leaders are hoping to adopt a declaration of human rights when they meet in Phnom Penh in November, but rights workers in Southeast Asia say the draft so far is insufficient and does little to advance the notion of human rights in the region.

Asean representatives say the declaration will provide a human rights standard for the 10 countries within the group. An Asean committee has been quietly worked on the declaration, which provides provisions that “must be considered in the regional and national context,” according to a draft obtained by VOA Khmer. Rights advocates say that kind of language is too watered down for the declaration to be effective.

“The fact that the commission has been so secretive about the draft may be explained by some of our concerns that a draft would contain the provisions that are below the international standard,” said Shiwei Ye, a Bangkok-based representative of the International Federation of Human Rights. The draft does not include protection against discrimination against sexual orientation, gender identity and indigenous rights, he said.

Advocates Divided on Worth of Asean Commission

Kek Galabru, founder of the rights group Licadho. (Photo: VOA, Khmer)

Soeung Sophat, VOA Khmer
Washington, D.C Monday, 28 June 2010

“Because in the Asean way of doing things, a consensus must be reached and countries cannot interfere with each other’s internal affairs. This is what I believe is a major obstacle.”

After years of effort by civil society, the establishment of the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights was seen as a milestone. However, activists and critics now say they have concerns the body, which was formed in October 2009, might not live up to its goals, and they are divided on it current value.

Human rights violations remain a problem in Cambodia and other parts of Southeast Asia, particularly Burma. The Asean rights commission was supposed to be a major step toward strengthening rights in these countries. But at least four prominent activists interviewed by VOA Khmer agree that the main obstacle for an effective commission will be its lack of protection mechanisms and independence.

“I haven’t seen this commission doing any investigation at all,” said Kek Galabru, founder of the rights group Licadho.

Unlike human rights commissions of other regions, the Asean body has been active only in human rights promotion—through teaching, dissemination, and research—but it lacks protection measures, she said.

“Because in the Asean way of doing things, a consensus must be reached and countries cannot interfere with each other’s internal affairs,” she said. “This is what I believe is a major obstacle.”

The commission’s own literature says it should “promote and protect human rights” within Asean, via 10 representatives from member nations “accountable” to their own governments. But at the same time, representatives can be replaced at will, raising concerns the body is vulnerable to political interference by its own member states.

The chair of the commission is currently Vietnam, for example, a country that itself is often criticized for rights abuses and restrictions of freedoms.

“These kinds of commissions can be created for window dressing and actually succeed in creating cynicism among a lot of people about whether or not human rights in worth pursuing,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Right Watch.

“I perfectly well understand that it will take time in the best of cases to create a successful mechanism, but I don’t think that Asean is serious,” he said. “They are just a bunch of dictators running various countries, and people who would be dictators…just don’t have any interest in allowing anything out of their control. Even a country like Singapore, which is very liberal economically, is very controlled politically. So it has very serious limits, and I don’t have particular high hopes for this.”

Asean officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Despite these apparent shortcomings, Ou Virak of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said that having a commission is better than nothing, noting that the ambiguity of the commission’s founding document could work in favor of civil society advocates.

“I think that it is good to have the commission, because it is a political institution,” he said. “The agreement that created this commission is a political document, meaning that it evolves according to the trends of Asean politics. This means that if Asean becomes more open to human rights, the agreement can be interpreted in a broader way. The role of the commission can thus be made more effective.”

Activists disagree on the extent to which civil society can play a role in helping shape the commission’s long-term effectiveness.

Adams said he doubted the commission will do any good for Cambodia’s civil society, noting that groups and activists here already have strong support.

“It will be more helpful to other countries,” he said. “Cambodia does have a very vigorous civil society. It was opened up by the Untac process, and it’s been sustained by…the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights office, by donors, diplomats, and most of all by the courage and tenacity of Cambodian groups themselves. And I wouldn’t expect them to get anything from the Asean process what they can get already.”

Ou Virak acknowledged that the lack of real power would hurt the Asean rights commission’s overall effectiveness, but he also said civil society can push for a greater role in the future. The association is an evolving institution, he said, and it can make inquiries that help reveal human rights deficiencies and create political pressure on governments.

The CCHR plans to work with other NGOs to file a joint complaint about Cambodia’s human rights violations to the commission, after similar proceedings were pioneered by rights groups in the Philippines earlier this year.

Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhco, said his group is also hoping to file complaints with the commission, especially concerning the alleged shootings of Cambodian civilians by Thai soldiers along the border, should such violations continue.

The Asean commission will hold two meetings this year and has reviews every five years. The next review is in October 2014, and until that time rights groups say they have little hope in shaping its structure and workings.

The next five years are likely to see little progress in the commission’s work, Thun Saray said. Still, he said, in the long run, progress in other regions, like Africa and the Americas, where there are human rights courts, could help build momentum for Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, Kek Galabru suggested patience, especially with a commission that is just beginning. The ultimate test will be its ability to bring justice to victims of rights abuse, she said.

“I think that it is most important for a human rights institution to have power to investigate, make findings, and then to deliver justice to the victims,” she said. “Only after it has fulfilled this role is it of any use.”

Delegates to ASEAN’s rights body draw fire

Ong Yentieng

Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post

A COALITION of more than 70 regional NGOs has condemned eight ASEAN members, including Cambodia, for failing to respond to its demand for a consultative meeting about the newly created ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission for Human Rights (AICHR).

According to a statement issued Monday, the Solidarity for Asian Peoples Advocacy Taskforce on ASEAN Human Rights stated that only the AICHR delegates from Thailand and Indonesia had responded to its request to hold a civil society consultation on the AICHR’s rules of procedure as it met in Jakarta Monday.

“As representative[s] of a human rights institution, the refusal to meet with civil society is in itself a contradiction of the spirit and principles of human rights,” Yap Swee Seng, the co-convenor of the task force, said in the statement.

The AICHR was established on October 23 last year, during the 15th ASEAN summit held in Hua Hin, Thailand.

Om Yen Tieng, the chairman of the government-run Cambodian Human Rights Committee, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Southeast Asia leaders to launch human rights body at annual summit amid tight security

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, arrives at Hua Hin airport in Cha-Am, a resort town in southern Thailand on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. Thailand has mounted one of its biggest security operations in recent history with more than 36,000 military and police to prevent anti-government demonstrators from overrunning a summit of Asian leaders who will gather Friday, an official spokesman said Thursday. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Sakchai Lalit,Pool)

Friday October 23rd, 2009
Denis D. Gray
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHA-AM, Thailand - Southeast Asian leaders planned to launch a pivotal but sharply criticized human rights commission Friday and grapple with how best to achieve economic integration by 2015.

The three-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will also include talks with the leaders of Asia's major powers, including China and India.

The leaders of Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were not expected to arrive in time for Friday morning's opening ceremony, officials said. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is hosting an official visit by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Indonesia is swearing in a new government and Malaysia's government was presenting its budget to Parliament, said Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was running late due to Typhoon Lupit, the third storm in a month due to hit the Philippines, her spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said.

One of the first orders of business will be the inauguration of the Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, which activists say will do little to deter human rights violators like ASEAN member Myanmar because it imposes no punishments and focuses on promotion rather than protection of human rights.

ASEAN officials respond that the commission is a work in progress and can be strengthened in the future.

Members of the 10-nation bloc have recently escalated their criticism of Myanmar. But the summit will again likely act by consensus, avoid confrontations and maintain that the group's approach to engaging Myanmar works better than the West's sanctions and threats.

The summit will also sign a declaration on climate change and discuss food security, bio-energy, disaster management and how trade barriers can be brought down to bring about a European Union-style grouping within the next six years.

The bloc will then meet with leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Thailand has deployed more than 36,000 military and police both in Bangkok and to guard the seaside summit of Asian leaders, working to prevent any repeat of the disruptions that shut down another meeting earlier this year, an official said Thursday.

The government is still smarting from the storming of the East Asian Summit in April in the seaside city of Pattaya, where anti-government protesters charged through thin police ranks and forced the evacuation of several leaders by helicopter and boat.

A main protest organizer said no new demonstrations are planned this week in Bangkok or at the summit venue, the beach resort of Cha-am, 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of the capital.

About half of the security forces mobilized have thrown a security cordon around this summit venue, and the others will be on alert in the Thai capital, said government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn. He said 20 newly bought bulletproof SUV's will chauffeur leaders to their meetings.

"Security forces have also set up emergency escape routes by land, air and sea," he said. "We don't expect it to be necessary but we want to be ready and to assure leaders that they will be able to meet without distraction."

Security forces have also been empowered to impose curfews and restrict freedom of movement around Cha-am and Bangkok.

Thailand has been rocked by years of protests and counterprotests by supporters and opponents of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup on accusations of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect to the country's monarch.

ASEAN Human Rights Commission: CHRAC fears it might just be an empty shell

03-03-2009
By Duong Sokha
Ka-set

Two days after the closing of the 14th ASEAN summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, the civil society in Cambodia reiterated its concerns about the terms of reference of the future institution in charge of Human rights within the regional organisation of Southeast Asian nations, and questioned “its independence, its accountability and effectiveness”.

On the occasion of a press conference held on Tuesday March 3rd in Phnom Penh, Cambodian Human rights activists first insisted on reasserting their support to the approach adopted by governments of ASEAN country-members, which led to a first draft of the terms of reference of “a Human rights body”, in accordance with Article 14 of the ASEAN Charter ratified by Cambodia on November 20th 2007. But because recommendations made by the civil society were not taken into consideration, Human rights defenders fear this future commission might well resemble an empty shell.

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ASEAN Human Rights Body with Teeth—or Paper Tiger?

August 1, 2007
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
IPS Writer/Bangkok

At first glance, it appeared that Southeast Asian governments were determined to strengthen the language of human rights across the region.

A meeting of foreign ministers in Manila has declared that a regional rights body will be part of a new charter for the 10-member bloc to be approved at a summit in November.

But o­n closer scrutiny, many human rights groups and members of opposition parties have voiced concerns, saying Asean must give real power to such an entity for the body to be taken seriously.

But such details have yet to be worked out, officials at the o­ngoing Asean ministerial meeting in the Philippines capital told the press this week.

"They need to give this human rights body investigating powers to look at violations committed in any Asean country and to have powers to seek corrective measures," says Basil Fernando, the executive director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, or AHRC, a non-governmental watchdog.

"There must also be a proper mechanism in place for victims to submit complaints for the commission to investigate," he said.

Such features will be hard to sidestep, he said, since the Asean human rights body will be judged by the standards set by similar regional commissions created elsewhere. he said during a telephone interview from Hong Kong, where the AHRC is based.

"There are regional human rights bodies in Africa and South America that have powers to investigate and more," he said during a telephone interview from Hong Kong, where the AHRC is based.

"Civil society groups who have long campaigned for such a body will follow the events over the next few months as Asean gives shape to this regional human rights commission," Debbie Stothard, the head of the Alternative Asean Network o­n Burma, or ALTSEAN, a regional rights lobby, told IPS. "It is too early to cheer because the creation of the commission for now seems to be more like an agreement of a policy to do so."

The governments should know that "even a paper tiger will not be able to cover up the glaring human rights violations in the region," she added, referring to language common in Southeast Asia to describe laws that sound strong o­n paper but are weak in application. "Human rights even in the more progressive Asean countries leave a lot to be desired," Stothard said.

Typical among them is Singapore, the most affluent Asean member, which will host the bloc's annual summit in November. The new rights body is due to be confirmed as part of Asean's first regional charter. Opposition political figures—for whom a human rights commission is particularly important—have not been included in discussions to create this new mechanism.

"The opposition and civil society groups in Singapore are concerned because their views were not sought in regards to the commission," Chee Siok Chin, a ranking member of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, said in a telephone interview from the city-state. "We have o­nly heard the views from the establishment."

Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia were the original members of Asean, set up 40 years ago to strengthen regional economic ties and act as a bulwark against the spread of communism in the region. Of them, Indonesia currently tops the list of nations advancing o­n the human rights and democracy fronts. Malaysia and Singapore, by contrast, have governments known for authoritarian features, where freedom of expression is regularly under threat or non-existent.

The members who joined since 1967 are Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. With the exception of Cambodia, these countries do not offer space for political and civil liberties. Brunei has an absolute monarchy, while Laos and Vietnam have been under the grip of Communist parties since the mid-1970s.

It is military-ruled Burma, admitted to Asean a decade ago, that looms as the test case to measure the effectiveness of the new regional rights body.

"The human rights violations in Burma should be among the first cases the new commission should investigate," says AHRC's Fernando. "It is a good test case, because Burma ranks as o­ne of the human rights violators o­n the global scale."

Former Burmese political prisoners drew Asean's attention o­n a related front Monday, when they said that the very day the agreement for the new human rights body was approved, July 30, the Burmese junta cracked down o­n human rights activists in the country.

A private teacher was sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined because "he let members of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters have a human rights training at his place," according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

Burma has jailed more than 1,100 political prisoners, and held under house arrest the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for more than 11 years. The junta has also gained notoriety for using rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority communities and commandeered thousands into slave-like forced labor camps and prevented international humanitarian groups from offering aid.

Such abuse has been known by all the Asean governments, who opted to defend Burma from international criticism after it joined the bloc in 1997. But since 2003, the spirit of cordiality has begun to fray, as Asean was taken to task by the European Union, the US government and at international summits for keeping a hands-off approach to oppression in Burma.

Led by Malaysia, originally a major supporter of Burma's membership into the bloc, some Asean governments have begun to turn up the heat o­n their recalcitrant neighbor.

This week's announcement to create a regional rights body confirmed Asean's temperament towards the military regime.

"Asean had shielded the Burmese military from international criticism in the past, but the regime has become a source of shame and embarrassment. They cannot do it anymore," Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst living in exile, told IPS. "Burma has to accept the changes."

The Burmese people will benefit if the new rights commission proves to be independent and effective, he said.

"Due to the draconian laws, people are arrested there [in Burma] for small things which would be taken for granted in other countries—even for a suspicious look," he said.