ASEAN Rights commission like a 'train wreck' says director

Human Rights Watch director says participation of society needed

Manila Ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) should include non-government rights groups in the drafting of the region’s much-awaited human rights declaration, activists have said.

“The international community must demand that Asean’s Inter-government Commission on Human Rights (AICHR ) permit full civil society participation in the drafting of the Asean Human Rights Declaration (AHRD),” Phil Robertson Asia deputy director, Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in an article in The Nation.

As of now, the commission is like “a full blown train wreck,” Robertson added.

Because of its intransigence, the AICHR is like a “commission shrouded in secrecy,” said Forum Asia, the region’s coalition of human rights groups.

About 100 civil society organisations and networks in Asean countries have already called for the release of AHRD’s draft, to check if the commission is progressive or conservative, said the Manila Times.

Earlier, Navi Pillay the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2011: “No discussion of human rights can be complete or credible without significant input from civil society and national human rights institutions.”

Rights groups are extremely frustrated because they are not participating in the drafting of the AHRD, Pillay said.

Last January, during AICHR’s meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, “officials from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, provided comment as a block of nations, [and] proposed more progressive wording [of the declaration],” Manila Times quoted Mizzima Publications as saying.

A human-rights advocate on Myanmar affairs, Mizzima accused Laos and Vietnam of proposing conditional upholding of human rights in the region.

Limiting rights

Reading from a leaked copy of AHRD’s draft, Mizzima quoted Laos as proposing that the “exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms [in Asean] shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely... to meet the just requirements of national security, public order, public health and public morality and the general welfare of the peoples in a democratic society”.

Laos wanted to limit “the right to practice one’s religion or belief” and wants these to be subject to the country’s national laws,” said Mizzima, adding this would make Asean countries’ exempted from AHRD’s mandate because of their respective laws on security, public morality and other issues.

Vietnam showed reservations “about the right to freedom of opinion and expression and to freely receive information,” reported Mizzima.

Laos also called for “non-confrontation, avoidance of double standards and non-politicisation” in the upholding of human rights, said Robertson who also got a copy of AHRD’s draft.

Malaysia called for the upholding of “rights and freedoms within the regional context” or within “Asean core values,” said Robertson, adding that those in charge of AHRD’s draft focused more on “limiting rights — rather than promoting and protecting them”.

In all, AHRD “seeks to undermine international standards,” assessed Robertson, referring to the benchmark already reached by the United Nations Human Rights Council and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

‘Grave abuse’

As a rule, AHRD should be the region’s “strong voice for human rights everywhere, because citizens of Asean countries are everywhere, some of them, including Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), are subjected to grave human rights abuses by their employers,” the Manila Times editorial said.

“We hope it is not one of those documents that — true to Asean’s tradition — will state lofty goals but will leave member governments the option of acting or not acting on the matter.” the Manila Times added.
AHRD’s final draft will be reviewed by Asean foreign ministers in June.

Asean has been promising that the AHRD will be a landmark in the democratisation of Asean member countries.

It will be the “road-map for regional human rights development in the region,” vowed Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan.

Asean adopted the Asean Charter in 2007, which paved the way for the drafting of its human rights declaration.

Asean members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Source: By Barbara Mae Dacanay- Gulfnews.com