This document provides an overview of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), including its founding, members, goals of establishing an ASEAN Community by 2015 across three pillars - political-security, economic and socio-cultural. It notes that while ASEAN aims to promote human rights, peace and stability, its non-interference principle and emphasis on sovereignty have limited its ability to address mass atrocities. The document also discusses obstacles like the lack of democracy, imbalanced development concepts, and arguments of "Asian values" that have hindered ASEAN's role in preventing mass atrocities and crisis response.

1. Exploring Cooperation to
Prevent Mass Atrocities in
ASEAN
Yuyun Wahyuningrum, Senior Advisor on ASEAN and Human Rights, Human
Rights Working Group (HRWG) Indonesia, e-mail:
wahyuningrum@gmail.com
Global Convening to End Mass Atrocities, Istanbul, Turkey, 17-19 June 2013

2. About ASEAN
Founding
Members
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• Indonesia
• Philippines
• Singapore
Additional
Members
Population 580 million
Area 4.5 million square km.
Combined GDP USD $ 737 Billion
Trade USD $ 720 Billion
• Brunei Darussalam
1984
• Viet Nam 1995
• Lao PDR 1997
• Myanmar 1997
• Cambodia 1999

3. ASEAN (Association of the Southeast Asia Nations)
10 member countries
Established. 1967
ASEAN Charter 15 Dec 2008

4. ASEAN: Evolution of a Shared Vision
1967 – vision of SE Asia community
First few decades - interstate relations,
nation building, economic development
New Millennium – ASEAN Community by
2015, state-to-people relations,
strengthening social pillar, people-oriented
organization

5. Main Thrusts of 3 Pillars of ASEAN Community
Political Security
•
•
•
•
Rules-based
community
Peaceful,
evolutionary, sharedsense of
responsibility, and
possessing
comprehensive
security
Dynamic, supports
efforts to form a
global outreach and
mutual
interdependence
Promotion and
Protection of Human
Rights
Economic




Common market
and shared base of
production
Competitive with
other regions
A region with few
developmental gaps
A region that is
integrated and yet
able to retain its
own momentum in
moving forward
external economic
relations
Social Cultural






Human resources
Development
Provide adequate
social welfares and
services
Social rights and
justice
Environmental
sustainability
ASEAN identity
The narrowing of
developmental gap
between Member
States

6. Interrelation of the Three Pillars to the
Establishment of the ASEAN Community
ASEAN
Economic
Community
(AEC)
ECONOMY
SOCIAL
CULTURE
ASEAN SocioCultural
Community
(ASCC)
“Enhancing
“Nurturing human,
competitive-ness
cultural and natural
for economic
resources for
growth and
sustained
POLITICAL
development
development in a
SECURITY
through closer
harmonious and
economic
people-centered
integration”
ASEAN”. (339
(154 Action Plan)
Action Plan)
ASEAN Political Security Community (APSC)
“Enhancing peace, stability, democracy and prosperity in the
region through comprehensive political and security
cooperation” (142 Action Plan)

7. ASEAN Political Security Blueprint
1.
2.
The promotion and protection of human rights in accordance with the
ASEAN Charter, the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights, and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
Promotion of peace and stability through:
Tolerance and respect for diversity
Conducting dialogue among different groups, and
Pursuing poverty alleviation and narrowing development gaps
3.
The promotion norms that enhance ASEAN defense and security
cooperation
Developing and publishing an ASEAN Security Outlook
Holding voluntary briefings on regional political and security
developments and
Developing an ASEAN early warning system (based on existing
mechanisms) to prevent the occurrence and/or escalation of conflicts

8. ASEAN Political Security Community
4. Support for conflict resolution and pacific settlement of disputes through:
Promoting the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC)
Strengthening existing modes of pacific settlement of disputes
Undertaking conflict management and conflict resolution research studies,
and
Developing ASEAN modalities for good offices, conciliation and mediation
5. The strengthening of research activities on peace, conflict management and
conflict resolution by identifying priority research topics, with a view to:
Providing recommendations on promoting peace, conflict management and
conflict resolution
Enhancing existing cooperation among ASEAN think tanks to study peace,
conflict management and conflict resolution
Undertaking studies to promote gender mainstreaming in peace-building,
peace process, and conflict resolution, and
Developing a pool of experts from ASEAN Member States as resource
persons to assist in conflict management and conflict resolution activities.

9. ASEAN Political Security Community
Directing activities in ASEAN Political Security Pillar
toward efforts to prevent mass atrocities require a
flexible interpretation, because it is clear that the pillar
was not drafted with mass atrocities prevention in mind.
At the moment Indonesia is proposing a review on the
Pillar before the 2015 ASEAN Community – can be the
entry point to highlight the missing link with mass
atrocities prevention activities and implication to the
building of ASEAN Community

10. Limitations
ASEAN is self-limited in playing role in R2P
implementation
The language of the TOR of the ASEAN
Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights
(AICHR) and other ASEAN’s documents appear to be
contrasting with R2P as they emphasize “respect for
sovereignty” and “non-interference in internal affairs
of states” as paramount values
ASEAN does not make reference to mass atrocities or
four crimes that constitute R2P

11. The 3Cs in Human Rights Architecture
ASEAN Human Rights Systems
Conventions:
Norms/
Commission/Committee
ASEAN Human
Rights Court??
Instruments
ACWC
2010
AICHR
2009
ACMW
2008

12. The ensuing process of drafting the TOR of the ASEAN Commission on
Human Rights (AICHR) was another difficult battle. As SOM failed to
agree on a draft for the TOR, it was brought up during the Foreign
Ministers Meeting in Hua Hin in 2009. It was already endorsed by 9
countries except Indonesia
consensus to accept the existing mandate of AICHR with a condition
that when ASEAN review the Terms of Reference in 2014, the AICHR’s
mandates would have a balanced mandate both in terms of promotion
and protection of human rights.
Then, the condition was agreed. That understanding was contained in
the Leader’s Statement, “the TOR of the AICHR shall be reviewed every
five years after its entry into force to strengthen the mandate and
functions of the AICHR, in order to develop mechanisms on both the
protection and promotion of human rights.”

13. Main Obstacles to the Creation of Political
Culture for Respect for Human Rights
While the region’s economy is growing and more dynamic as
compared to many other regions, some obstacles remain:
a) lack of democracy,
b) imbalance concept of development,
c) excessive notion of non interference in domestic affairs, and
d) the claim of Asian values are obstacles to the creation of a political
culture to foster respect for human rights.
This also explains why the works of the AICHR in the past few years
did not progress as we expected. The AICHR suffers from a lack of
direction and focus. In addition, the continuing debate on the
AICHR TOR characterizes the different political and human rights
cultures of ASEAN member states.

14. AICHR looked hollow when gross violation of human
rights took place in ASEAN and the commission did
not respond to these violations. One recent example
is the plight of Rohingyas people. Clearly, a weak
AICHR mandate excused it from taking active
protection measures
But there are many creative ways to move the weak
TOR into action. The main problem is actually the
absence of political will

15. ASEAN on the atrocity prevention
and crisis response
how organizations in our community might work to
engage them more effectively on these issues.

16. Human rights violation in mass
atrocities

17. ASEAN Institute for Peace and
Reconciliation (AIPR)

18. Non-interference
While ASEAN views the principle of non interference as a
“sacrosanct” principle, the organization overlooked the fact that
it is one of the UN Charter’s principles (Article 2 para. 7).
Over the past 67 years, the principle is seen as a dynamic
concept. On the other hand, ASEAN still clings to this concept in
a static manner.
In purely legal terms, interference is not just columns of tanks
crossing the border into another territory.
Raising a certain issue in a bilateral, regional or international
forum and consequently adopting a resolution on the matter
may also constitute interference in a country’s domestic affairs.

19. These sort of issues are often raised and discussed in ASEAN
forums. The country in question would be tacitly or overtly
involved in the discussion, only to suddenly reject a
resolution adopted by the forum, citing non-interference of
domestic affairs.
However, the static view of the non interference principle is
no longer applicable to gross violations of human rights,
which under the Vienna Consensus 1993 is a matter of
international concern.

20. Non-Interference?
Non-interference is the center-piece of the so-called ‘ASEAN
way’ of regionalism
Non-interference is going to stay. It is ASEAN Identity (ASG
Interview)
Is it Non-interference principle that hinder ASEAN to prevent
mass atrocities and respond to crisis? Or the absence of
political will of Member States?
Or is it a matter of asking help?
SEE presentation/paper Michael Vatikiotis (June 6)

21. Asian values
ASEAN’s member countries attribute the organization’s
conservative attitude to its argument of Asian values. The debate
between human rights as universal values on one hand, and as a
regional particularity on the other hand, reached its peak during
the Second World Conference on Human Rights in 1993.
In his book “Development as Freedom”, Prof. Amartya Sen
dismissed Asian values as nothing but “authoritarian values”.
But how ASEAN can defend this values based on non-derogable
human rights. Can you defend arbitrary detention, violation to
rights to life, torture, unfair trial and extreme poverty from the
perspective of Asian values?

22. While the more democratic states attempt to strengthen
ASEAN’s international credibility by improving human
rights conditions and ASEAN profile, they do not push to
the extent of jeopardizing the existing relationship
between states
We cannot expect ASEAN will make its progress on the
respect of human rights as matter of policy except if
ASEAN also makes progress in its promotions of
democracy. Not only because the two are inter-related but
more than that one major element of human rights namely
the civil and political rights, are in essence prerequisites to
democracy.

23. Although the promotion of democracy and human
rights are now an official agenda as mandated by the
ASEAN Charter, its translation to ASEAN Blueprint on
Political and Security Community is relatively weak
(compared with the ASEAN Blueprint on Economic
Community); old habit, dies hard.