Democratic Burmese Youths

Myanmar opposes human rights body in Southeast Asia, diplomats say

AP

Posted: 2007-07-27 02:52:39

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Myanmar has objected to a proposal to create a regional human rights body under a landmark charter being drafted by Southeast Asian countries, two diplomats said Friday. The proposal, backed by more liberal countries such as the Philippines, is among the few remaining contentious issues holding up completion of a charter for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the diplomats said. The Southeast Asian diplomats, who were helping draft the charter, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. ASEAN, formed in 1967, has decided to draft a charter to become a more rules-based organization with better bargaining power in international negotiations. It hopes the charter can be signed at an annual ASEAN leaders' summit in November. A high-level ASEAN task force has completed about 95 percent of the work and plans to submit a final draft to the region's foreign ministers at a meeting in Manila on Monday. "We're working on it," ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said. Enshrining human rights protection in the charter has been a touchy issue because some ASEAN countries have spotty rights records, such as military-ruled Myanmar. Diplomats have agreed to guarantee the protection of human rights in the current draft charter, but Myanmar rejected a proposal to specifically mention creation of a rights commission, the two diplomats said. A draft of the charter, seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday, calls for the "respect of fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice" but made no mention of a human rights body. Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said Thursday his government wanted the creation of such a body guaranteed by the charter to give ASEAN "more credibility in the international community." Aside from the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia have raised the need for such a rights body in the past but other ASEAN members have opposed it. Some ASEAN members fear such a commission could allow scrutiny of rights conditions in one country, possibly violating the group's cardinal policy of noninterference in each other's affairs. Human rights groups complain that ASEAN's noninterference principle has fostered undemocratic regimes in the region. ASEAN consists of fledgling democracies, communist countries, authoritarian capitalist states, a military dictatorship and a monarchy. Indonesia proposed a regional rights commission with investigative powers in 2003 but ASEAN failed to reach a consensus on it. Two years later, ASEAN agreed to set up panels to protect the rights of women, children and migrant workers and to promote human rights education pending establishment of a commission. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It admitted Myanmar in 1997 despite strong opposition from Western nations.