South-East Asia gets "toothless" human rights commission (3rd Lead)

Oct 23, 2009, 8:16 GMT

   Cha-am, Thailand - The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Friday inaugurated a human rights commission for the region, which critics have already dismissed as 'toothless.'

   The inauguration of the ASEAN Inter-governmental Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) occurred at the 15th ASEAN Summit in Cha-am, hours after half of the representatives of civil society groups were rejected for an audience with the ASEAN leaders.

   The governments of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore all rejected the delegates chosen by the ASEAN Civil Society to meet with the ASEAN's leadership, now a scheduled event at ASEAN summits to demonstrate the group's new 'people orientation.'

   The rejected delegates included Cambodia's Nay Vanda, Laos' Manichanh Philaphanh, Myanmar's Khin Ohmar, the Philippines' Crescencia Lucerno, a Franciscan nun, and Singapore's Sinapan Sanaydorai, a labour activist.

   Myanmar cynically appointed two former police chiefs to represent civil society for them instead.

   The Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai civil society representatives walked out of scheduled 'interact' talks with the leaders.

   'We felt we could not be treated this way,' Indonesian civil society representative Yuyun Wahyuningrum said. 'We don't understand why they are so afraid of us.'

   'It's disturbing that this is happening at a time the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Human Rights Commission is being launched,' said Debbie Stothard, head of one of those groups, the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma.

   The irony was apparently lost on Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who presided over the inauguration ceremony.

   'For members of civil society, you should rest assured that you now have a partner with whom to work,' Abhisit said of the new commission.

   Abhisit on Friday opened the three-day summit in Cha-am, 130 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, with a call for a more dynamic, action-based ASEAN as it moves toward its goal of achieving an integrated ASEAN Community similar to the EU by 2015.

   'We have to start thinking about a new approach in the way we do things,' Abhisit said. 'Our institutional structures should be strengthened so that the decisions can be made promptly whereas their execution can also be done in a timely manner.'

   He enumerated the group's increasingly active role in 2009, such as agreeing to set up a regional financial 'self-help mechanism' by year's end to cope with the global financial crisis, participation in the Group of 20 summits of the world's largest economies, joint efforts to combat swine flu and an initiative to launch a permanent emergency rice reserve with China, Japan and South Korea.

   The highlight of the summit was the inauguration of an ASEAN Human Rights Commission which critics have labelled as 'toothless' in a region notorious for human rights abuses.

   The much-debated commission has been faulted for lacking independence from the 10 participating ASEAN governments, which include human rights pariah Myanmar and other poor performers such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

   Commissioners on the new ASEAN human rights body were to be appointed by their respective governments, raising immediate questions about the commission's effectiveness.

   The commission has no mandate to intervene in human rights violations in member countries but is to concentrate more on promoting regional understanding of human rights issues.

   ASEAN has been widely criticized in the past for not dealing with human rights abuses in its own backyard, specifically for failing to pressure Myanmar, also known as Burma, to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political prisoners. Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house detention.

   The summit was also due to see the signing of declarations on food security, regional connectivity, disaster management and cultural exchanges.

   Thailand is this year's chair of ASEAN, which now holds two summits per year. Next year, Vietnam is to chair the group, whose members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

   Besides drawing the leaders of ASEAN, the leaders of Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, ASEAN's main partners, are also scheduled to attend the summit in Cha-am.