ASEAN hears human rights appeal

ASEAN hears human rights appeal

JAKARTA (JP): Human rights activists from Indonesia, the
Philippines and Thailand took their case to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) yesterday in a bid for a regional
rights mechanism.

However, the association responded coldly, saying that in
order to have a regional commission, body, or mechanism on human
rights, each member country of ASEAN must have their own national
commissions on human rights first.

"As long as we don't have yet a national commission in other
ASEAN countries, it is very difficult to move toward a regional
mechanism," Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, chairman of
this year's ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, told journalists after the
closing of the meeting.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Alatas, accompanied by Brunei
Foreign Minister Mohammed Bolkiah and Malaysian Foreign Minister
Datuk Abdullah Badawi, met yesterday with human rights activists
from Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The rights activists included Aurora Navarrete Recina,
chairwoman of the Philippines Human Rights Commission, Suthin,
vice chairman of Thai Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human
Rights, Marzuki Darusman, vice chairman of Indonesia's National
Commission on Human Rights and other Indonesian rights promoters
Asmara Nababan and Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara.

Marzuki noted that what he and his colleagues were seeking was
only to push the process for the establishment of a regional
mechanism on human rights, which was already mandated by the 1993
ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore.

"After three years, not much has been achieved aside from
individual governments of ASEAN having their own commissions,"
Marzuki said, pointing to Indonesia, Thailand and the
Philippines. Other ASEAN countries -- Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore
and Vietnam -- do not yet have their own rights commissions.

He noted that a regional mechanism on human rights would
create an appropriate climate to address the issue of human
rights more often and openly.

"That is a very important dimension in shaping out the process
for everybody to feel comfortable in talking about human rights
openly," Marzuki said.

He noted that such a regional mechanism will enable rights
commissions in each ASEAN country to register the concerns of the
public or the wide community of ASEAN, and then bring them to the
attention of the respective ASEAN governments

The rights activists presented the three foreign ministers a
proposed text on the promotion of human rights and ways and means
to protect human rights in ASEAN for incorporation into the ASEAN
foreign ministers' joint communique. The proposed text, however,
was not printed in the communique, issued at the closing of the
ASEAN Ministerial Meeting yesterday evening.

"It's a good idea but we must take the reality into account.
We cannot force the other ASEAN governments into a pace that is,
according to us, desirable but is not according to them," Ali
said.

"We are a democratic group, we cannot just tell the other
countries: please make your national commission fast because of a
regional mechanism. We can't. All we can say is, well, we hope
you can see a way to at one point make a national commission so
that we can make a regional mechanism," he continued.

Responding to Ali's view, Marzuki said that he had no target
date in mind on establishing a regional rights mechanism. "If not
this year, next year or the year after next year is all right."
(pwn/rid)