Pia Lee-Brago
AP
Myanmar has objected to a proposal to create a regional human rights body under a charter being drafted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), two diplomats said yesterday.
Backed by the Philippines and other liberal member states, the proposal is among the few remaining contentious issues holding up approval of the draft ASEAN charter, the diplomats said.
The diplomats, who were helping draft the charter, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
ASEAN has decided to draft a charter to become a more rules-based organization with better bargaining power in international negotiations.
It hopes the charter can be signed at an annual ASEAN leaders’ summit in November.
A high-level ASEAN task force has completed about 95 percent of the work and plans to submit a final draft to the region’s foreign ministers at a meeting in Manila on Monday.
“We’re working on it,” ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said.
Enshrining human rights protection in the charter has been a touchy issue because some ASEAN countries have spotty rights records, such as military-ruled Myanmar.
Diplomats have agreed to guarantee the protection of human rights in the current draft charter, but Myanmar rejected a proposal to specifically mention creation of a rights commission, the two diplomats said.
A draft of the charter calls for the “respect of fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice,” but made no mention of a human rights body.
Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said Thursday the government wanted the creation of such a body guaranteed by the charter to give ASEAN “more credibility in the international community.”
Thailand and Indonesia have also raised the need for such a rights body in the past but other ASEAN members have opposed it.
Some ASEAN members fear such a commission could allow scrutiny of rights conditions in one country, possibly violating the group’s cardinal policy of noninterference in each other’s affairs.
Meanwhile, the Philippines will push its agenda of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting starting tomorrow.
Romulo said an important key to regional and global security and stability is ridding the world of the scourge of nuclear weapons.
Several topics with a nuclear dimension will be taken up during the meetings.
Romulo said the liberation of the Korean peninsula from nuclear weapons, as well as the nuclear issues involving Iran, will also be taken up in the AMM.
Romulo said another important meeting will be the historic first gathering of the Commission for the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone which he will chair.
“During this meeting, we will chart the future course in implementing the SEANWFZ Treaty through the adoption of a Plan of Action,” he said.
Romulo said the SEANWFZ entered into force in 1997 and all ASEAN states are parties to the treaty.
“Part of ASEAN’s advocacy in the meetings here in Manila, is to encourage the five nuclear weapons states to adhere to the Protocol of the SEANWFZ or Bangkok Treaty,” he said.
Romulo said the ASEAN Regional Forum participants will adopt an ARF Statement on the Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540.
“We must continue to implement Resolution 1540 in order to ensure that weapons of mass destruction do not spread, and that non-state actors are denied access to weapons of mass destruction or to materials that can be used to produce these weapons,” he said.
Romulo will also chair the Ministerial Meeting of the Southwest Pacific Dialogue that brings together some members of the Bangkok Treaty (the Philippines, Indonesia) and the Treaty of Rarotonga or the South Pacific Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty (Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea) to discuss the importance of continuing to work for nuclear disarmament.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
It admitted Myanmar in 1997 despite strong opposition from Western nations.
Backed by the Philippines and other liberal member states, the proposal is among the few remaining contentious issues holding up approval of the draft ASEAN charter, the diplomats said.
The diplomats, who were helping draft the charter, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
ASEAN has decided to draft a charter to become a more rules-based organization with better bargaining power in international negotiations.
It hopes the charter can be signed at an annual ASEAN leaders’ summit in November.
A high-level ASEAN task force has completed about 95 percent of the work and plans to submit a final draft to the region’s foreign ministers at a meeting in Manila on Monday.
“We’re working on it,” ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said.
Enshrining human rights protection in the charter has been a touchy issue because some ASEAN countries have spotty rights records, such as military-ruled Myanmar.
Diplomats have agreed to guarantee the protection of human rights in the current draft charter, but Myanmar rejected a proposal to specifically mention creation of a rights commission, the two diplomats said.
A draft of the charter calls for the “respect of fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice,” but made no mention of a human rights body.
Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said Thursday the government wanted the creation of such a body guaranteed by the charter to give ASEAN “more credibility in the international community.”
Thailand and Indonesia have also raised the need for such a rights body in the past but other ASEAN members have opposed it.
Some ASEAN members fear such a commission could allow scrutiny of rights conditions in one country, possibly violating the group’s cardinal policy of noninterference in each other’s affairs.
Meanwhile, the Philippines will push its agenda of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting starting tomorrow.
Romulo said an important key to regional and global security and stability is ridding the world of the scourge of nuclear weapons.
Several topics with a nuclear dimension will be taken up during the meetings.
Romulo said the liberation of the Korean peninsula from nuclear weapons, as well as the nuclear issues involving Iran, will also be taken up in the AMM.
Romulo said another important meeting will be the historic first gathering of the Commission for the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone which he will chair.
“During this meeting, we will chart the future course in implementing the SEANWFZ Treaty through the adoption of a Plan of Action,” he said.
Romulo said the SEANWFZ entered into force in 1997 and all ASEAN states are parties to the treaty.
“Part of ASEAN’s advocacy in the meetings here in Manila, is to encourage the five nuclear weapons states to adhere to the Protocol of the SEANWFZ or Bangkok Treaty,” he said.
Romulo said the ASEAN Regional Forum participants will adopt an ARF Statement on the Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540.
“We must continue to implement Resolution 1540 in order to ensure that weapons of mass destruction do not spread, and that non-state actors are denied access to weapons of mass destruction or to materials that can be used to produce these weapons,” he said.
Romulo will also chair the Ministerial Meeting of the Southwest Pacific Dialogue that brings together some members of the Bangkok Treaty (the Philippines, Indonesia) and the Treaty of Rarotonga or the South Pacific Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty (Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea) to discuss the importance of continuing to work for nuclear disarmament.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
It admitted Myanmar in 1997 despite strong opposition from Western nations.
1 comment:
Myanma=Laos=Hun Sen country do not like that human right,nor participate with it.
the monkey do not know what is that such thing,
Koun Khmer pheaskhloun
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