MARUAH Singapore

The Associated Press (AP) reveals a worrying signal from Myanmar on the issue of the ASEAN human rights body.

Myanmar opposes investigative powers
By JIM GOMEZ – Jul 22, 2008

SINGAPORE (AP) — Myanmar’s junta has indicated it will oppose any effort to give a Southeast Asian human rights body the power to monitor or investigate rights violations in the region, diplomats said Tuesday.

A high-level panel of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations started work Monday to set up the rights body. The panel will lay down the body’s future makeup, role and powers, which will be presented to a summit of ASEAN leaders in December.

But in a closed-door session with the panel Monday, Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win said the human rights body should uphold ASEAN’s bedrock policy of noninterference in each other’s affairs, a diplomat present at the meeting told The Associated Press.

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

Another diplomat who attended a separate meeting between all 10 ASEAN ministers and the panel also said Nyan Win made clear his opposition to the rights body having any monitoring authority.

Myanmar’s military government, which has been strongly criticized by Western governments and even fellow ASEAN members for its dismal human rights record, has used the bloc’s policy to parry any attempt by outsiders to intervene on behalf of human rights victims in the military-ruled nation.

It has already been decided that the rights body will not have the power to impose sanctions or seek prosecution of violators. But Myanmar’s objections, if honored, will make the body even less effective.

A majority of other ASEAN foreign ministers, led by Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, separately told the panel that the human rights body should at least be empowered to monitor violations and offer advice to prevent such problems, said the first diplomat.

Myanmar officials were not immediately available for comment but in the past they have said the human rights body should only serve as a “consultative mechanism” and that it should not “shame and blame” any ASEAN nation.

The rights body is being set up as part of ASEAN’s proposed new charter, which seeks to make the organization rule-based.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said the charter will serve as a guide to the panel drafting the terms of reference for the rights body.

“They’re going to follow the charter very, very closely — its principle of promoting, upholding and protecting human rights,” Surin said.

The international community has condemned Myanmar’s junta for its refusal to restore democracy and release pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees. ASEAN has also been criticized for not doing enough to pressure Myanmar’s military leaders.

ASEAN foreign ministers, disappointed with the Myanmar junta’s foot-dragging on democracy, expressed “deep disappointment” in a statement Sunday at the junta’s May decision to extend Suu Kyi’s detention.

ASEAN’s members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Reuters reports on the different views expressed by the 10 member countries of ASEAN, with regards to the proposed human rights body under the ASEAN Charter.

21st July 2008
SE Asia begins negotiations to set up rights body
By Manny Mogato

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has begun negotiations for the creation of a human rights body, a senior Philippine official said on Monday, with hopes of concluding talks in Bangkok next July.

Rosario Manalo, Manila’s representative on a high-level panel drafting the framework, said they expected to show ASEAN foreign ministers a draft of the terms of reference of the rights body by December 2008.

“I am very positive we can finish our job by the time ASEAN foreign ministers meet next July in Bangkok,” Manalo told reporters, adding that more member states had recently expressed willingness to set up an independent body with broader powers.

Last year, Southeast Asian leaders agreed in Singapore to set up a rules-based organization. Among key institutions they agreed to establish was a human rights body.

In a communique, ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Singapore on Monday “reaffirmed the commitment by all member countries to ratify the ASEAN Charter by the 14th ASEAN summit in Bangkok” in December.

Only Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand have yet to approve the charter after Myanmar formally informed the bloc of its ratification this week.

Manalo said some member states which had been initially reluctant to form even a local human rights body had become supportive after the 10-member task force met the ASEAN foreign ministers on Monday.

“The minister of Laos was supportive of the human rights body and was doing more positive things,” said Manalo, a former diplomat.

“The minister of Vietnam was very conciliatory and very positive. He said we can find common grounds to agree and only one or two states were holding on to their positions to keep the status quo.”

DIVIDED BLOC

The Philippines has urged the bloc to work on the universal standard of human rights as adopted by the United Nations because all 10 members were signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand wanted a strong, independent body that would not only protect and promote human rights, but also compel members to make periodic reports on progress, an official said.

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam wanted only an advisory or consultative body, while Singapore and Brunei preferred to define human rights in the context of ASEAN.

“In short, these countries wanted a watered-down human rights body, where state interests prevail over the rights of individuals,” the official said.

The task force was beginning its work on Monday and hoped to conclude negotiations by the next ASEAN ministerial meeting in Bangkok in a year’s time, he said.

Manalo said some initially reluctant states had become more positive, believing that ASEAN must create a rights body that was “more realistic and credible — not just to the people of the region, but for the rest of the world”.

Last month, Singapore’s Tommy Koh, head of the task force drafting an ASEAN charter calling for protection of human rights, said there was no consensus on the body having the power to monitor or investigate rights situation in the 10 member states.

“We do not want the ASEAN human rights body to be accusatory, a finger-pointing body,” said Koh.

ASEAN, a bloc encompassing half a billion people, groups Brunei, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Roger Crabb)