ASEAN moves slowly on rights mechanism

ASEAN moves slowly on rights mechanism

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) has failed yet again to keep its oft-repeated promises to
establish a mechanism for the promotion of human rights in the
region.

ASEAN senior officials yesterday concluded their three-day
gathering without achieving any significant development or
concrete steps for the promised mechanism, but only referred to
it as an item for further deliberation.

Some officials were even "reminded" of their past commitment
on the issue by foreign policy experts who briefed the meeting
earlier on Wednesday.

The chair of the senior officials meeting, Indonesia's Izhar
Ibrahim, said yesterday that officials have decided to continue
deliberations on the matter in the future.

The senior officials meeting began here on Tuesday as a run-up
to the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting scheduled for July in Jakarta.

"When I brought up the issue of human rights promotion
yesterday, many had forgotten," said Izhar, who is the Foreign
Ministry's director general for political affairs.

One of the most important elements in ASEAN's commitment to a
human rights mechanism is the establishment of a human rights
commission in all of the ASEAN states.

However, out of the seven ASEAN members only Indonesia and the
Philippines have such a commission.

"So, our decision was to agree to continue discussions on the
subject in future senior officials' meetings," Izhar said.

He added that such a matter needed further consultation
because many members states were not yet ready to act.

While not a central issue among the ASEAN senior officials,
the question of human rights is expected to crop-up during the
start of today's meeting between member states of the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF), particularly with regard to Myanmar's
application for membership.

The ARF is a multilateral political-security consultative
forum which comprises several regional and non-regional states
including Australia, Canada, the United States and the European
Union.

Izhar yesterday acknowledged that there were concerns about
the human rights issue. "I can't say that there weren't. There
have been comments," he said.

He maintained, nevertheless, that political-security affairs
are the main focus of the ARF and thus membership should be based
on that.

"We have to be reasonable, human rights doesn't have a direct
link with regional security," he maintained. (mds)