The new ASEAN intergovernmental commission on human rights: Toothless tiger or tentative first step?

Asia Pacific Issues

Volumn , Issue 90, 2009, Pages 1-8

  Kelsall, Michelle Staggs ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ASEAN; DECISION MAKING; HUMAN RIGHTS;

EID: 70349880845     PISSN: 15220966     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (15)

1. The terms of reference (TOR) for the ASEAN ICHR were adopted at the 42nd ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in July 2009, and will be formally established at the October 2009 Summit, both held in Phuket, Thailand. The ASEAN member states are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma (Myanmar), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
2. ASEAN Secretariat, "Another Step Forward for Regional Human Rights Cooperation," news release, 20 July 2009, available online at www.aseansec.org/4919.htm (Last accessed 27 July 2009).
3. Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, as quoted in "Criticism of Asian Rights Body Rebuffed," by Tim Johnston, Financial Times, 20 July 2009.
4. Liann Thio, "Implementing Human Rights in ASEAN Countries: Promises to Keep and Miles to Go before I sleep," Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal 2, no. 1 (1999): 45.
5. See for example the statements of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 42nd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, 17-24 July 2009.
6. Maria-Gabriela Manea, "Human Rights and the Inter-regional Dialogue between Asia and Europe: ASEAN-EU Relations and the ASEM," The Pacific Review 21, issue 3 (2008): 376.
7. Garry Rodan, "Accountability and Authoritarianism: Human Rights in Malaysia and Singapore," Journal of Contemporary Asia 39, issue 2 (2009): 197.
8. Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ratified by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on 30 November 2008.
9. Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ratified by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on 30 November 2008., Article 2(e).
10. See "Terms of Reference of ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, " Article 4.2, available online at www.aseansec.org. (Last accessed 27 July 2009). (Hereafter, TOR).
11. Suzannah Linton, "ASEAN States, Their Reservation to Human Rights Treaties and the Proposed Commission on Women and Children," Human Rights Quarterly 30, no. 2 (2008): 440.
12. TOR, Articles 4, 6.8, and 6.9.
13. Anthony Langlois, The Politics of Justice and Human Rights: Southeast Asia and Universalist Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 101.
14. Anthony Langlois, The Politics of Justice and Human Rights: Southeast Asia and Universalist Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 102.
15. James L. Cavallaro and Stephanie Erin Brewer, "Reevaluating Regional Human Rights Litigation in the Twenty-First Century: The Case of the Inter-American Court," American Journal of International Law 102 (2008): 791.