Vitit Muntarbhorn, Unity in Connectivity? Evolving Human Rights Mechanisms in the ASEAN Region

Since the signature and ratification of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Charter in 2007, Southeast Asia and its regional organisation, ASEAN, have been transitioning at great speed towards creating and implementing its pillar structure of three ‘communities’ in economy, political-security and socio-cultural aspects of integration. Of particular interest is the mainstreaming of human rights within the ASEAN Charter, thereby implicitly linking economic, security and human rights issues among others in parallel legal standing. It goes without saying that human rights in Southeast Asia are both contentious and highly contested. This is evidenced first by the fact that the ‘Asian’ region is the last region of the world to have a human rights body. Secondly, the very long period of time between the emergence, or rather intersection, of rights discourse in 1993 with the World Conference on Human Rights and the document produced from it, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, to the establishment of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in 2009. Lastly, the frequently publicised and disturbing reports of human rights abuses throughout the region which continue up to the present. Given the newly emerging regional framework for the promotion and protection of human rights in Southeast Asia, there is a shortage of literature specifically on the subject of the AICHR. As such this book is timely and constitutes a substantial attempt to provide a specific account of the regional context for later scholarly work.