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Published on August 1, 2007

It is fascinating to watch the 40-year-old Asean tackle the fundamental issue of human rights. When Asean foreign ministers met on Monday at their Manila retreat, they successfully achieved a consensus to establish a human-rights body to promote and protect the rights of Asean citizens. Those unfamiliar with Asean-style negotiations would just praise the extraordinary outcome and progress made by the ministers in their brief meeting; Burma made a concession by agreeing to the establishment of the rights body, an idea that the regime in Rangoon had opposed from the beginning. Those who are familiar with Asean's way of doing things will know that it is far too early to claim victory or believe that such a human-rights mechanism will be set up soon.

Asean's decision to include a provision to set up a human-rights body in the Asean Charter has drawn positive feedback from around the world. Several regional and international civil society organisations congratulated Asean on its endeavour. They even said, unfortunately incorrectly, that Asean's human-rights body would be similar to those set up by other regional bodies, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. When it comes to human rights Asean without a doubt has its own unique approach and thoughts and, lo and behold, the observations of these bodies have proven not to be the case.

The drafters of the Asean Charter will have several more weeks to contemplate and work out the terms of reference. This could result in foot dragging. After all, Asean still relies on a consensus and that means all of its members have to be satisfied. Indeed, in the past few years it has become a mantra in Asean that a consensus is needed in order not to have a consensus.

It is important to remind Asean citizens that there are four kinds of inputs going into the drafting of the current charter. So far, three of those four channels have been used - the relevant Asean documents and agreements, the ideas of drafters, and the inputs of foreign ministers. Asean leaders comprise the final channel and they are scheduled to meet during the third week of November and ink the charter. But before that historic moment comes, there are still many landmines.

As things stand, drafters are playing the most pivotal role in preparing the Asean charter. The 10-member drafting committee comprises five senior Asean officials, two Asean directors-general, two ambassadors at large and one retired envoy. Each member represents the different views of his or her country and those of the concerned ministries. The lack of a consensus on the human-rights issue brought out the skills and expertise of participants who used diplomatic language to camouflage true meaning and intent. In fact, the core members of Asean do not see eye to eye with new Asean members, who have been quite pro-active. Indeed, the old guard is more eager to protect and maintain the status and norms of Asean. They do not want to see Asean change into a more open and dynamic grouping if such a transformation lessens their grip on power.

In 1993, at a meeting in Bangkok, Asean agreed there should be a human-rights mechanism, but there has been no progress since then. Of course, two years ago, Asean decided to focus on the rights of women and children as well as those of migrant workers. Other categories of human-rights abuses, especially those dealing with civil and political rights, have not been on the agenda. Some Asean countries think it would be best to wait to seriously ponder the topic until all members have ratified all international conventions pertaining to human rights. That would be akin to the protagonist's plight in "Waiting for Godot".

When Asean leaders meet in November in Singapore to put their rubber stamp on the charter, they probably will want to avoid any "face-losing" activities or discussions. They would rather agree on the charter and seek amendments later. The history of Asean has shown that to change something that has been signed or ratified would be extremely difficult, which is why so few changes have been made to Asean documents in the past. Conservative members want a charter that contains no new elements, except those related to administrative matters, because that would enable them to function better without giving much to the common cause.