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Imagining Southeast Asia that cared about human rights
Improving human rights in the ASEAN community will only happen if the new generations feel the urgency to have a better and fairer legal framework in place to protect their freedom.
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Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (right) reads notes during a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers with representatives of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in Singapore on Aug. 1, 2018. (ASEAN2018 Organizing Committee/ASEAN2018 Organizing Committee)
W
hen talking about the ASEAN community, it is important not to neglect the issue of human rights from a regional perspective because the grouping will never become a true community of people without properly dealing with human rights.
The issue is even more important because the 10th Anniversary of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration will soon occur and hopefully this can be an opportunity to reenergize and reframe the debate on human rights in the region.
Realism and pragmatism must be fully taken into account and no one can expect huge and radical changes toward a more progressive human rights framework in the Southeast Asian region.
Nevertheless, very soon there will be some commemorations and the usual declarations from the leaders of the region and from the ASEAN Secretariat on the “relevance” of the declaration.
Yet those who care about human rights in Southeast Asia should pay attention and bring the issue to the highest levels of public discourse.
Interestingly, the much criticized ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) is trying to do something about the commemoration.
Together with the ASEAN University Network - Human Rights Education (AUN-HRE), the Strengthening Human Rights and Peace Research and Education in ASEAN / Southeast Asia (SHAPE-SEA) and the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP) at Mahidol University, the AICHR is organizing an essay competition for undergraduate students on the role of the declaration in protecting and safeguarding human rights in the region.
