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MANILA, Philippines -- The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is moving closer to creating of a human rights body as it is forming a group of high-level experts that will draft the terms of agreement (TOR) of its establishment, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.
“The TOR is a tough step as it would look into the details of the implementation of the human rights body of the ASEAN…We are now in the process of forming an experts' group with strong background on human rights, diplomacy... They should be well versed on human rights and international laws,” said DFA undersecretary for policy Enrique Manalo.
In an interview, Manalo said ASEAN would go full blast on the TOR by July which of course would be subject to approval by Senior Officials Meeting and subsequently by the heads of state.
The creation of a body to ensure that human rights will be upheld in the region has been a big stumbling block in the draft and approval of the ASEAN Charter.
The ASEAN body seeks to address all forms of rights abuses and atrocities against nationals of ASEAN member-countries, including Myanmar, which continue to be ruled by a military junta.
Manalo clarified that the Charter still did not specifically provide for sanctions, including expulsion, on erring member-countries as this would still be the subject of the TOR to be defined by the human rights experts’ group.
"We're not there yet. Everything's still open and there is no specific rule on sanctions," said Manalo.
On a parallel course, Manalo said the ASEAN Charter was also undergoing ratification in the six other countries. The four countries of Singapore, Brunei, Laos, and Malaysia ratified the Charter early this year.
"The hope is that the ASEAN Charter would be ratified by all countries by December 2008 during the next ASEAN summit in Bangkok," he said.
The ASEAN Charter provides for the creation of various councils that will separately address issues and concerns for the integration of the member-countries, as well as their respective dialogue partners. Aside from the human rights body, the other formal bodies are the ASEAN coordinating council and the committee of permanent representatives.
“We hope to be able to finish this [creation of ASEAN bodies] within the next two years,” he said.
The ratification of the ASEAN Charter seeks to establish a rules-based inter-governmental body and to create a stronger economic bloc by facilitating trade and investments.
The ASEAN economies also seek to create a single market economy by 2015 while negotiating free trade agreements with stronger economies like China, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union.
ASEAN members are the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei and, Burma or Myanmar.
