Housing rights violations pose challenge for ASEAN human rights body

Forced eviction in Cambodia (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Sunday, September 19, 2010
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

COHRE said that in Cambodia, land and housing rights violations have become one of the most prevalent forms of human rights violation following the destruction of the country’s land and property records in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge rule. Tens of thousands have been dispossessed of their lands, dwellings and properties by powerful economic and political forces identified with the country’s elite and their allies in big business. For example, more than 3,000 families living around Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh have suffered or are currently threatened with forced eviction in the context of a land development project that involves filling the lake.

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), an international human rights organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday called on the newly-established ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to seriously address housing rights violations in the region.

The call came as the AICHR meets in Kuala Lumpur in its second-ever meeting, after being established by ASEAN in October 2009.

Since its establishment, the Commission has been dogged by criticism that it is “toothless”, as it does not have the power to investigate cases of human rights violations in the region.

“Tens of millions of people in Southeast Asia today endure various levels of housing rights violations and insecurity of tenure. Most of them are poor and the vulnerable,” said Sammy Gamboa, COHRE’s Asia Programme Officer, speaking from the site of the meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

According to COHRE, housing rights violations – including forced evictions – continue to be one of the most intractable human rights issues in the region, and a major human rights challenge for the Commission in the region.

“It will be interesting to see how the AICHR – ostensibly set up to apply, promote and protect human rights in Southeast Asia – will handle the housing rights crisis in the region, which is mainly a result of a regional governments’ economic and development policies, widespread poverty, and marginalization and exclusion of the majority of Southeast Asia’s poor,” said Sammy Gamboa.

COHRE warned the AICHR that the construction of mega-projects and resource-extraction activities dispossess vulnerable people of their homes and land, and push them away from sources of subsistence.

The organization said that violations of the right to adequate housing are compounded by the prevailing climate of impunity in the region, along with widespread corruption in many ASEAN countries.

COHRE said that in Cambodia, land and housing rights violations have become one of the most prevalent forms of human rights violation following the destruction of the country’s land and property records in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge rule. Tens of thousands have been dispossessed of their lands, dwellings and properties by powerful economic and political forces identified with the country’s elite and their allies in big business. For example, more than 3,000 families living around Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh have suffered or are currently threatened with forced eviction in the context of a land development project that involves filling the lake.

In the Philippines, COHRE welcomed the commitment of the new Philippine government to respect the rights of the urban poor to adequate housing, according to a pledge made by newly-installed President Benigno Aquino Jr. during the May election campaign. However, COHRE remains concerned that demolitions and forced evictions continue to take place in Manila and Quezon City, and around 400,000 families in Metro Manila are threatened with forced eviction. This includes 60,000 families in the Manggahan Floodway, targeted for displacement, and in the Pasig River area, where the homes of 40,000 families are set to be demolished.

In Myanmar, hundreds of thousands have suffered various levels of housing and other human rights violations. Mega-projects reportedly being funded by foreign investment (gas pipelines, mega-dams and large-scale mining) often lead to large-scale displacement and widespread destruction of homes, properties and livelihoods. For example, a proposed five-dam cascade on the Salween River directly threatens the livelihoods of over 70,000 people. Mounting incidents of military abuses, forced relocation, forced labour and land confiscation at the dam sites are being reported.

“The establishment of the AICHR last year raised hopes and guarded optimism for human rights in Southeast Asia, and we welcome the AICHR’s engagement with human rights movements in the region,” said Sammy Gamboa.

“However, almost a year has now passed, and efforts to make the AICHR effective and truly work for the promotion and protection of human rights in the region still have a long way to go.”

COHRE called on the AICHR to effectively address the region-wide problem of housing rights violations, including forced evictions, that continue to be one of the intractable human rights issues in the region

It also urged ASEAN member-states to ratify the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), including its Optional Protocol.

COHRE reminded ASEAN governments in the Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia that they must comply with their treaty obligations under the ICESCR , including the implementation of recommendations and concluding observations, particularly on the right to adequate housing and against forced evictions.

It furtherd said that the AICHR needed to establish a protection mandate and subsequent mechanism for the effective redress of human rights violations, including violations of housing and other human rights.

The AICHR must develop and elaborate additional protocols related to the right to adequate housing, in keeping with existing international human rights standards, COHRE said

Last, it called on the AICHR to particularly address the rights and needs of women, children and migrant workers in the region, who are often disproportionately impacted by housing rights violations, including forced evictions.

Asean's 'Human-Rights' Council: Not off to a great start

Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Wall Street Journal

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations inaugurated its human-rights commission Friday. Like its United Nations equivalent, it's a toothless body, but it can still do damage to the cause it's supposed to serve.

Asean members aspire for the council to be "a vehicle for progressive social development and justice, the full realization of human dignity and the attainment of a higher quality life for Asean peoples," according to their inaugural declaration. These are worthy goals.

But Asean is a broad church that includes countries like Burma and Laos that want to rubber-stamp their authoritarian regimes, not submit to real scrutiny. All 10 commissioners who will serve on the council for three year terms were chosen by their respective Asean member nations, in most cases through opaque selection processes that involved little or no public consultation. Commissioners include Kyaw Tint Swe, the Burmese ambassador to the U.N. who has long defended the junta's rights record there, and Brunei's Abdul Hamid Bakal, a Shariah court judge. The commission operates by consensus and its mandate focuses on promoting human rights, not protecting them.

The initial signals aren't encouraging. At the weekend Asean summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, delegates discussed regional integration, climate change and removing trade barriers. No less than five Asean nations—Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Singapore—refused to meet with civil society representatives during a scheduled "interface meeting" Friday meant to act as a forum for discussion between heads of state and civil society representatives.

This was nothing if not predictable, given the composition of the council. It's also a shame, given the need for an effective human-rights watchdog in the region. Burma, for instance, will be holding elections next year. If the human-rights council meant what it said about upholding "human dignity," it could mention the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed opposition leader who is still under house arrest. Or it could examine the status of the Rohingya refugees who routinely wash up on the shores of Thailand and Malaysia as they flee from Burma.

Asean aspires to be a regional organization with bigger global clout. Embracing a human-rights council like this is detrimental to that goal.

ASEAN to protect human rights but only with consent of violating nation [-ASEAN's toothless human rights commission?]

07/20/2009
AsiaNews.it

The 42nd ASEAN foreign ministers summit is underway in Phuket. The regional association has decided to set up a human rights commission. Experts note that the proposal is flawed because to intervene the new organisation will need the unanimous consent of all member states. Economy, trade and the fight against terrorism are also on the table of discussion.

Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Foreign ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed to boost trade, fight terrorism and set up a commission to monitor human rights in member states.

The proposal has however met with widespread scepticism because ASEAN (Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) has always refrained from interfering in the domestic affairs of its member states, which include a military dictatorship (Myanmar) and regimes (Vietnam) that have been accused of human rights violations.

What powers such a commission will exercise remains unclear, but ASEAN officials said the group had agreed to take into account the “special circumstances” of the ten members.

For experts such an organisation will not be very useful since it will have no independent authority to investigate member states and any action it might undertake is conditional on the unanimous agreement of member states.

Still “it is better to make a start than leave this hanging with no purpose at all," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejiajiva said. “We want to establish a body that begins with the issue of promotion (of rights). Once that is put into place, there will be more teeth for the body in terms of protection.”

At the same meeting ASEAN members agreed to resist protectionism and boost economic growth in a region with a total population of 570 million people and an annual economic output of US$ 1.1 trillion.

The worldwide economic downturn has left ASEAN economies reeling. Foreign direct investment into the region fell 13 per cent last year to US$ 60.1 billion.

Export-dependent countries like Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia are all facing a sharp decline in exports.

The group, along with China, Japan and South Korea which have been present as observers at ASEAN summits for some years, was working on making an emergency rice reserve a permanent fixture.

US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton is also scheduled to attend the summit to discuss terrorism, the North Korean nuclear issue and border disputes between ASEAN member states.

Southeast Asia to approve human rights body [-What will happen to Hun Xen's regime which dismisses human rights?]

July 20, 2009

PHUKET (AP) -- Southeast Asian ministers are to approve a new regional commission on human rights but without powers to monitor or punish member nations such as military-ruled Myanmar.

The commission will first focus on promotion of human rights rather than protection, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters after the opening Monday of a conference of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

Critics question the worth of such a body, albeit the first set up within ASEAN. The bloc includes among its 10 members communist Vietnam and Laos as well as Myanmar, which holds more than 2,000 political prisoners including democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Phuket meeting is taking place amid international outrage over the trial of Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who faces up to five years in prison on charges of violating terms of her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American to stay at her home.

On Sunday, Myanmar authorities detained dozens of opposition party members as they returned from ceremonies marking the death of Suu Kyi's father Gen. Aung San, the country's independence hero. They were later released.

The rights body is called for in the ASEAN Charter, promulgated seven months ago to serve as the 42-year-old bloc's constitution. The bloc has traditionally operated by consensus and shuns interference in the internal affairs of its members.

A Southeast Asian diplomat said a last-minute compromise among foreign ministers Sunday night would enable the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights to get formal approval at the conference. The commission is to be officially unveiled at an ASEAN summit in October.

The diplomat, citing protocol for speaking on condition of anonymity, said the foreign ministers reached consensus on the "terms of reference" for the body after Indonesia and Thailand withdrew their objections following an agreement that their views would be reflected in a "political declaration" in October.

Indonesia and Thailand had been pushing it to "monitor and review" the human rights situation in every member country and make country visits.

The commission's framers have stressed regional education and appeals for adherence to accepted human rights standards. It will not have powers to investigate or prosecute human rights violators. There is no provision for human rights experts to sit on the body.

"It's better to make a start than to leave it hanging, with no progress at all," Abhisit said. "We recognize the concerns of people who deal with this issue and will take them on board."

Last month, more than 200 groups urged in a letter to the drafters to make the rights body an "effective mechanism." But activists acknowledged that they had a hard struggle ahead, given opposition from Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

"Even Singapore and Malaysia have said our demands are difficult," said Yuyun Wahyuningrum of FORUM-ASIA, a Bangkok-based regional rights lobby.

Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said ASEAN ministers were "generally in support" of the rules guiding the body, adding that the rules on the mandate and functions of the body could be strengthened five years after they go into force.

"The draft terms of reference reflect a maximum consensus among ASEAN countries at this time," Kasit said of the rules. "It is important to make this human rights body credible but at the same time to take into consideration the real situation in ASEAN member countries."

Such comments have drawn fire from private groups and academics.

"Members of the body should be able to consider human rights in places such as Burma (Myanmar) and Cambodia or southern Thailand, or what's the point?" said Chalida Tajaroensak, president of the Thailand-based People's Empowerment Foundation.

Myanmar's human rights record is expected to feature at a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, which follows the Southeast Asian foreign ministers' meeting and includes 27 members including the United States, Russia and China.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who arrives Tuesday, is expected to bring up both Myanmar and North Korea's nuclear program.