ASEAN urged to establish human rights commission

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 12/06/2006 1:14 PM

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should immediately establish a special commission for human rights, activists say.

Secretary general of the working group for the formation of an ASEAN human rights mechanism Carlos P. Medina said that 40 years after ASEAN was established, the grouping still had no formal body to try human rights violations in the region.

""Year after year, we have only been told that ASEAN is still considering adopting a human rights mechanism,"" he told a talk show organized by KBR68H radio station Tuesday.

""Now, we hope that a provision to establish a human rights mechanism will be included in the ASEAN charter,"" Medina said.

ASEAN leaders will gather in Cebu, the Philippines, next week to discuss regional issues and ways to work toward an ASEAN community.

During the summit, they will receive a recommendation on the ASEAN charter, the grouping's legally binding code of conduct, from the Eminent Persons' Group (EPG). The EPG was formed by ASEAN leaders in Kuala Lumpur during their summit last year.

The leaders will then form a high-level task force to draft the contents of the charter.

Thailand's former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan said human rights violations in the region should be addressed by cooperation among states, although this would mean they would have to tolerate some form of international interference and lose some of their sovereignty.

""I think governments in ASEAN should adopt a flexible engagement policy to deal with human rights issues. Then they can say 'count me out' if a member country committing human rights violations asks for their support,"" he said.

Strong government, he said, had become a mantra for stable development in most ASEAN countries for decades. However, it had also caused many human rights violations.

""The Munir case is not an isolated one -- we have found similar cases in Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia,"" Pitsuwan said. Indonesian human rights activist Munir Said Thalib was killed by arsenic poisoning in September 2004.

The case has attracted world attention, and the United States Congress has sent recently a letter to the government asking for the case to be resolved. Lower courts and a presidentially sanctioned investigative team found evidence linking top National Intelligence Agency officials to his murder, although none have ever been charged.

The only man successfully prosecuted for his murder, an off-duty Garuda pilot, was later found not guilty on appeal by the Supreme Court in September this year.

Munir's widow Suciwati, another speaker on the program, said that after two years of investigations, she was still being denied access to developments in the case and could see no solution in sight.

""This is a test case to see if there is still impunity (before the law) here,"" she said.

Medina said several ASEAN leaders had suggested states sign up to a regional human rights body as they were ready, with others following suit later on.

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