ASEAN Security Community Needs Human Rights Mechanism

The recommendation of the Eminent People’s Group (EPG), a group of esteemed former statesmen in ASEAN, to explore the creation of an intergovernmental human rights system for Southeast Asia is sparking numerous debates and discussions in the region. It is leading to important gatherings where experts and members of civil society alike could deliberate at length on what this regional human rights system would spell out. The 14th ASEAN Colloquium on Human Rights, organized by ASEAN-ISIS last May 4-5, 2007, is one of these.

Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines hailed the conference, entitled “A Regional Human Rights Mechanism as an Imperative for Building an ASEAN Security Community”, as relevant. The Plan of Action of the ASEAN Security Community provides not only for the promotion of education and public awareness on human rights but the establishment of a network among existing human rights mechanisms.

“An ASEAN Rights Mechanism can begin from the bedrock of ASEAN consensus,” Basilio says. At the moment, all ASEAN states have ratified two international instruments, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). “Between the CRC and CEDAW, practically all human rights and fundamental freedoms are covered and protected. Given the list of rights in the CRC, it has the potential to overwhelm a human rights mechanism of a small ten-member regional organization like ASEAN,” she says.

Experts from human rights mechanisms in Africa, the European Union, and Latin America traced the evolution and dynamics of their respective systems from which their counterparts in Southeast Asia can draw lessons from. The history of the African Union is of particular interest because of its many similarities to Southeast Asia. Like the region, Africa places high value on community rights and had to grow with meager resources.

In ASEAN, there is a growing (albeit different levels of) interest among governments in the creation of a regional human rights system. The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand already have national human rights institutions (NHRIs). Cambodia is heading towards that direction. Mr. Ou Virak, Cambodian Working Group member and Cambodian Center for Human Rights Executive Director, shared that Prime Minister Hun Sen had recently given a statement of support for the creation of an NHRI that will be independent from government.

It is hoped that ASEAN governments will ultimately sign an ASEAN Charter with a provision which will breathe life into a regional human rights mechanism. Now that the drafting of the Charter is reaching its final stages, support from other sectors, such as parliaments and media, is vital.

Secretary General Carlos Medina of the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism highlights what a human rights system can do for the ASEAN Security Community: “A transnational human rights mechanism will signify ASEAN’s willingness for democracy and peace for the region...and these are what the Security Community aspires to achieve.”