UN urges ‘credible’ Asian rights body

The United Nations urged Asian nations to make their new regional human rights body “credible” Thursday, as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) prepared for its official launch.

A view of downtown Rangoon in 2008. The United Nations urged Asian nations to make their new regional human rights body “credible” Thursday, as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) prepared for its official launch. Asean’s reputation has suffered over repeated alleged human rights abuses by member states, particularly military-ruled Burma.

The Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) will be the first regional human rights body in Asia-Pacific and will be launched as leaders meet Friday in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin for their annual summit.

The AICHR “will have to work hard to establish itself as a credible regional mechanism and help close the gap between human rights rhetoric and the reality on the ground,” said Homayoun Alizadeh, the regional representative for the UN’s human rights commission.

“There is much hope and expectation surrounding this occasion, as it represents an important commitment by states in the region to move beyond mere words,” he said in a statement.

Asean’s reputation has suffered over repeated alleged human rights abuses by member states, particularly military-ruled Burma.

Earlier this year Thailand also came under the spotlight for reported mistreatment by the armed forces of ethnic Rohingya immigrants who washed up on its shores after escaping Burma.

Activists are pushing Asean to take a stronger stance on alleged human rights abuses in Burma, and will be holding an Asean Peoples’ Forum to coincide with the weekend summit.

But on Tuesday a diplomatic source said that Burma had scuttled a plan by fellow Asean members to issue a public appeal seeking amnesty for detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi during the summit.

The 64-year-old Suu Kyi has spent around 14 of the past 20 years in detention and was sentenced to an extra 18 months’ house arrest in August over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home uninvited.

Suu Kyi led her National League for Democracy to a landslide victory in elections in 1990, but the junta has refused to recognise the result.

Burma’s military rulers are planning elections next year as part of promised democratic reforms, but critics have demanded that Suu Kyi and her party should be allowed to participate.

As well as Burma, Asean also groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.