Jul. 22 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has agreed to the formation of a new human rights body that was ratified this week and will be implemented in October.
The group has come under repeated criticism over its perceived tolerance towards fellow ASEAN member Myanmar, which has been frequently pilloried for rights abuses worldwide. The new human rights body however has already been criticized by several quarters as lacking teeth, with no monitoring or punishing powers and purely limits member countries to provide internal reports on rights conditions within their own countries.
Thai Prime Minister Abshist Vejjajiva, presiding over the ASEAN conference in Phuket, told media that: “It’s better having a starting place with this than to leave it hanging with no progress at all.” He said that he expected further additions to the body in terms of monitoring and issuing punishments would be introduced later.
The main problem over human rights in ASEAN lies with Myanmar – long a thorn on ASEAN’s side. Myanmar has detained more than 2,000 political prisoners, recently shot and jailed monks, in addition to imprisoning the country’s democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
ASEAN’s strategy is that it is better to maintain dialogue with Myanmar’s military junta than to isolate it further. However, the it was also acknowledged that “without a resolution on the issue of Myanmar, the country’s human rights record is impeding the progress of ASEAN” according to ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan.
Myanmar is located between Eastern India and South-Western China. Regime change there would need to be reached with consensus from both nations, who have long used Myanmar as a de facto buffer state between them. However, closer trading and diplomatic ties between India and China, and the need to develop a Pan-Myanmar road and rail links may facilitate regime change in the future.
An alternative Burmese government would need to be acceptable to both nations and a fall out from potential massive numbers of refugees and the huge costs of supporting a new government have thus far proved to be stumbling blocks. ASEAN’s new rights body however may signal the beginning of the end of regional patience and tolerance for the ruling Junta.
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