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Activists dismiss new Asean human rights body as toothless
Jakarta Globe - October 23, 2009
Cha-Am, Thailand – Southeast Asian nations inaugurated their first regional human rights commission on Friday, but the watchdog immediately found itself derided as toothless by activists.
The annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began inauspiciously when half of the bloc's 10 leaders failed to show up at the opening of the three-day conference due to a tropical storm, domestic politics, a VIP visit and a possible illness.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrives on Saturday after having to lead his new cabinet's first meeting on Friday.
One of the first orders of business was inaugurating the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. But critics said it would do little to deter human rights violators because it focused on promoting, rather than protecting human rights and lacked authority to impose punishments.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva defended the commission as "a significant milestone," noting it was the first rights watchdog to be established in Asean's 42-year history. "Human rights is not about condemnation, but about awareness," Abhisit said, adding that improving human rights was an "evolutionary process."
Activists condemned the body for being powerless and excluding members of civil society from a pre-summit meeting on Thursday. The activists, including one from Indonesia, had been prevented from attending the meeting with representatives of Asean nations after five of the nations boycotted them.
"It is a big shame to our dreams for genuine democracy in the region," said Sister Crescenia L. Lucero, a leading human rights advocate and Catholic nun. Lucero was supposed to have been a civil society representative for the Philippines at the summit. But she and other representatives of civil society were excluded from Thursday's meeting, said Debbie Stothard of the Asean People's Forum, an umbrella group of nongovernmental organizations.
Stothard said the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Singapore and the Philippines had refused to meet with the activists as planned. Singapore and Burma flew in substitutes from government-sponsored agencies.
Activists from Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia walked out in protest. Indonesian activist Yuyun Wahyuningrum said she and representatives of Thailand and Malaysia decided not to attend. "Civil society is insulted," she said.
Asean's 10 member nations include military-run Burma, communist Laos and Vietnam, and other countries whose governments persecute activists. Asean members have recently escalated their criticism of Burma, particularly over the detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But the summit will likely avoid confrontation on the issue.
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