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Mid

ASEAN unlikely to reach agreement on Human rights issue

PUTRAJAYA, July 18 (Bernama) -- The Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting in Singapore next week is unlikely to reach an agreement on the inclusion of the human rights clause in the Asean Charter, Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said Friday.

"The meeting from July 20 to 24 will concentrate on human rights under the Asean Charter, the definition of human rights, its scope and so on. The concept of human rights itself is wide and there are a few important questions that need to be answered.

"What I would like to stress is the need to include the eastern values in the clause. For example, respecting an elder and religious values are important to us in Asia. We can't take the Universal Human Rights Declaration as a whole and apply it here," he told a news conference at Wisma Putra (Foreign Ministry) here.

Other important Asian tenets must also be included in the Asean Human Rights charter, he said, adding: "I don't think an agreement on the matter would be reached at this meeting."

He said the human rights issue needed further delibration by the 10 member states of the grouping before it could be accepted under the Charter.

On another issue, Rais, who has just returned from Britain, said he had requested the British authorities to continue to waive visa requirements for Malaysians, taking into account the close ties between the two nations.

"Although the British government had given several countries, including Malaysia, six months to improve our immigration laws and enforcement, we feel that we should not have any visa requirement. We have close business ties, we have some 12,000 Malaysian students studying there," he said.

Britain imposed the six-month period after it was found that some 1,500 Malaysian passport holders had abused visas given to them over the past several years.

"I also stressed the importance for the British immigration authorities to inform the Malaysian High Commission in London once such visa fraud cases are detected. This would enable us to check on the matter and take appropriate preventive action," Rais added.

He said that during the trip, he also met officials of the Commonwealth Secretariat where the minister had emphasised the need for the Commonwealth to extend technical programmes to countries in Asia.

He said that presently Commonwealth programmes were concentrated in Africa, India and other continents but not in the east or in Asia.

"I will bring this matter up at the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group meeting in September. They should also extend whatever programmes to Asia," he added. (BERNAMA)

enews.mcot.net


unlikely to reach an agreement on the inclusion of the human rights clause in the Asean Charter

thus nothing more than a good junket for the pollies and a waste of time and money for the ordinary folks.

.

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"Keeping quiet while monks and other peaceful protesters are murdered and jailed is not evidence of constructive engagement." - Arvind Ganesan, Human Rights Watch.

"I think...I think it's in my basement. Let me go upstairs and check" - M.C. Escher

Mid

Myanmar opposes investigative powers for human rights body
JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer
July 22, 2008

SINGAPORE (AP) - Myanmar's junta has indicated it will oppose any effort to give a Southeast Asian human rights body the power to monitor or investigate rights violations in the region, diplomats said Tuesday.

A high-level panel of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations started work Monday to set up the rights body. The panel will lay down the body's future makeup, role and powers, which will be presented to a summit of ASEAN leaders in December.

But in a closed-door session with the panel Monday, Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win said the human rights body should uphold ASEAN's bedrock policy of noninterference in each other's affairs, a diplomat present at the meeting told The Associated Press.

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

Another diplomat who attended a separate meeting between all 10 ASEAN ministers and the panel also said Nyan Win made clear his opposition to the rights body having any monitoring authority.

Myanmar's military government, which has been strongly criticized by Western governments and even fellow ASEAN members for its dismal human rights record, has used the bloc's policy to parry any attempt by outsiders to intervene on behalf of human rights victims in the military-ruled nation.

It has already been decided that the rights body will not have the power to impose sanctions or seek prosecution of violators. But Myanmar's objections, if honored, will make the body even less effective.

A majority of other ASEAN foreign ministers, led by Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, separately told the panel that the human rights body should at least be empowered to monitor violations and offer advice to prevent such problems, said the first diplomat.

Myanmar officials were not immediately available for comment but in the past they have said the human rights body should only serve as a ''consultative mechanism'' and that it should not ''shame and blame'' any ASEAN nation.

The rights body is being set up as part of ASEAN's proposed new charter, which seeks to make the organization rule-based.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said the charter will serve as a guide to the panel drafting the terms of reference for the rights body.
''They're going to follow the charter very, very closely - its principle of promoting, upholding and protecting human rights,'' Surin said.

The international community has condemned Myanmar's junta for its refusal to restore democracy and release pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees. ASEAN has also been criticized for not doing enough to pressure Myanmar's military leaders.

ASEAN foreign ministers, disappointed with the Myanmar junta's foot-dragging on democracy, expressed ''deep disappointment'' in a statement Sunday at the junta's May decision to extend Suu Kyi's detention.

ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

newspress.com

blackgang

How in the hell can they reach an agreement when no one knows what Human Rights are or what it means.

Norton

My initial response when I first read this was bollocks. The more I thought about it, the more I believe he has a point. There are aspects of "human rights" as practiced in the west which IMO will never work in many Asian countries.

Burma is a country whose human rights only include the rights of those in power and anything they have to say regarding human rights is bullocks. Other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand may well be better served with a slightly different spin on what constitute "human rights".

I may start a post in Issues on the subject to get comment from the board.

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Eat right, exercise daily, live clean, die anyway.

Mid

hi Norton , here's a link to the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

wondering which clause / clauses you may think don't apply to Asia ?

panama hat

But, since the Declaration is not legally binding technically, there are no signatories to the Declaration. Instead, the Declaration was ratified through a proclamation by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948 with a count of 48 votes to none with 8 abstentions.


(from the UN Charter of Human Rights)