This is Xinhua’s second news report on the 7th Workshop held in Singapore, 12 – 13 June 2008.
Xinhua
13 June 2008
Experts: All members should be included in ASEAN human rights body
SINGAPORE, June 13 (Xinhua) — Most participants from the two-day workshop of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said here on Friday that all the 10-members, including Myanmar, should be included in a future human rights body for the regional organization. Read the rest of this entry »
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In this report, Today summarises the key points made by Prof Tommy Koh, Transport Minister Raymond Lim and Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, at the 7th Workshop held on June 12-13, 2008 in Singapore.
Today
13 June 2008
Asean’s human rights divide
Nazry Bahrawi
IT IS no secret the 10 members of the A:ssociation of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) aredivided over the issue of human rights. But it was only yesterday that a clearer picture of the rift emerged, thanks to a “frank” account given by veteran diplomat Professor Tommy Koh.
According to him, Asean is divided into two camps: One which champions human rights and the other, not as enthusiastic about it. Read the rest of this entry »
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Singapore Transport Minister Raymond Lim once again highlighted a position that Singapore tends advance – “the interpretation of most rights are still essentially contested concepts” – in his keynote address to the 7th workshop.
Straits Times
13 June 2008
Raymond Lim: Three criteria must be met
Mr Raymond Lim, Second Foreign Affairs Minister, listed three broad criteria for a new Asean human rights body when he delivered the keynote address at a workshop to discuss the human rights mechanism that is being set up under the Asean Charter: Read the rest of this entry »
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Article 14 of the Asean Charter may prove to be one of the most difficult to implement. Providing for a human rights body, the details have yet to be worked out. As Prof Tommy Koh said in his speech to the 7th Workshop, “There was no issue that took up more of our time, no issue as controversial and which divided the Asean family so deeply as human rights.”
Below is the Straits Times report of his speech. Read the rest of this entry »
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Asean seems to have exceeded expectations somewhat in getting co-operation from the Myanmar govenrment. As this report in Today indicates, aid teams from Asean countries have been promosed full access to affected areas. While very late – it is already 6 weeks after the cyclone hit – it is better than never.
Today
13 June 2008
Full access for Asean aid teams in Myanmar: Surin
Aid teams from the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) will have full access to all the areas in Myanmar devastated by Cyclone Nargis, said the group’s Secretary-General, Dr Surin Pitsuwan. Read the rest of this entry »
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Here is a report from AFP of the start of the 7th Workshop, held in Singapore, June 12-13, 2008.
Agence France-Presse
12 June 2008
Creating ASEAN rights body not easy: Singapore
SINGAPORE – Creating a human rights body for ASEAN will not be easy and must have support from all the bloc’s members, a Singapore cabinet minister said Thursday.
“Let us have no illusions that the road ahead will be easy,” Raymond Lim said in a speech to regional civil society groups and government representatives who met to discuss rights. Read the rest of this entry »
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This is Xinhua’s news story on the 7th Workshop, held in Singapore, June 12-13, 2008, reporting on Singapore Transport Minister Raymond Lim’s keynote address.
Xinhua
12 June 2008
ASEAN not to set deadlines for creation of new institution
SINGAPORE, June 12 (Xinhua) — The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must not set artificial deadlines for the creation of a new institution simply in order to establish one, said Singapore’s Second Foreign Minister Raymond Lim on Thursday.
Any new ASEAN institution must have the support of all the 10 member states to reflect the region’s complexity, diversity and realities in all fields, he said. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Straits Times has reported on the public lecture by Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn on a ASEAN human rights body, organised by MARUAH and ASEF.
ASEAN rights body will foster justice: Prof
Such a commission may extend the scope of human rights into less ‘accessible’ states
By Kor Kian Beng
kianbeng@sph.com.sgPEOPLE in ASEAN countries who suffer from human rights violations would have better access to justice if there were a regional human rights body they could turn to, a visiting human rights expert said yesterday.
Urging the creation of an ASEAN-level human rights commission, Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn said that this would benefit the people of ASEAN “because first, the United Nations is so far away, and second, the national setting may at times be not so accessible in terms of justice”.
He did not specify which countries he had in mind.
Prof Vitit, a law professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, noted that he was not advocating a human rights court similar to the European Court of Human Rights, but a commission.
Now, four countries in ASEAN have National Human Rights Commissions: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Prof Vitit said that a commission at the 10-nation ASEAN level could help articulate ASEAN’s concerns on human rights issues more forcefully, in a way that expressed “our concerns in a good light” without “undermining international perspectives”.
Speaking during a seminar at the Asia-Europe Foundation, he said that the commission could also push for more effective implementation of the rules and norms of human rights.
Prof Vitit was in Singapore for a two-day workshop organised by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs and the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism.
The ASEAN Charter, which member states had signed at the ASEAN summit here last November, stipulated the setting up of such a commission.
Terms of reference for the body will be put up to ASEAN foreign ministers for consideration when they meet in Singapore next month.
Prof Vitit, who is also the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights issues in North Korea, said that, although ASEAN was essentially a political organisation driven by economics, it could still address human rights issues in a “creative, innovative and meaningful manner”.
Would an ASEAN human rights commission be effective? A seminar participant, Dr Michael Vatikiotis, the Asia regional director for the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, pointed to “politics” getting in the way.
To many countries in ASEAN, Dr Vatikiotis noted, “human rights is problematic”.
Former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino, another seminar participant, pointed to two other hurdles.
First, to be effective, an ASEAN human rights body needed independent commissioners who could act as checks and balances against other institutions and also its members’ governments.
Second, where would the funding come from?
To the latter point, Prof Vitit said that the availability of money was not the issue, but its allocation was.
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It was a full house, with standing room only, when Prof Vitit Muntarbhorn delivered his lecture “An Asean human rights body: A milestone in the 60 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?” on 11 June 2008. The event was jointly organised by Maruah Singapore and the Asia-Europe Foundation, attended by academics, civil society activists, students, government officials and by ambassadors and other diplomats.
A report will follow soon. Meanwhile, photographs of the event can be found here.
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The Attorney-General, Prof Walter Woon, has responded to MARUAH’s forum letter to TODAY.
‘NO ONE SOLUTION’
A balance has to be struck between individual rights and overall good of society
Monday • June 9, 2008
Letter from :PROFESSOR WALTER WOON:Attorney-General
I REFER to the letter “Keep our door open to ideas” by Siew Kum Hong(June 6).
Mr Siew has misunderstood me. I surmise from his letter that he was not present at my talk.
In my address at the launch of the Law Society’s Public and International Law Committee, I said that for some people human rights has become a religion. This religion, like so many others, has its fanatics who display all the hypocrisy and zealotry of religious bigots.
They believe that there is only one permissible view of human rights — theirs. They assume that when they decide what human rights are, that decision is for the rest of humanity.
I gave the example of those who think that the right to free expression means that one can insult the Prophet of a great religion with impunity. I asked rhetorically, can we accept this in our society?
I pointed out that all our moral codes emphasise obligations rather than rights: The rule is “thou shalt not steal” and not “thou hast a right to property”.
I also said that the balance between rights and obligations is one for each society to decide.
Let me make my position clear lest I be misunderstood again. Human rights are a key component of good governance. But there is no consensus on where the line is to be drawn between the rights of an individual and the good of the society as a whole.
Human rights fanatics think that their opinion is the standard to which the rest of humanity must conform to and that they are entitled to issue reports criticising those who hold a different view. These are people who evidently believe that they and their values represent the apex of human moral development.
There is no one solution that will fit all societies.
I took pains to say that we must decide for ourselves where we draw the line between individual rights and the common good, because if we get it wrong, it will be our children who will pay the price. But that is a debate for us, not for those who know nothing of our history, culture or values and who do not have our interests at heart.
I have never dismissed the sincerely-held views of anyone who is genuinely interested in dialogue. A constructive debate about our obligations to our fellow citizens and the guests who live among us is healthy.
That is why I wholeheartedly supported the Law Society’s initiative in creating a Public and International Law Committee and having a series of lectures on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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Posted by lee sze yong
MARUAH Singapore 
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