Officials of Asean will sign a charter designed to turn the loosely structured regional body into a rule-based organization at the 13th Asean Summit in Singapore this month.
Asean has functioned without a legally binding document for more than a decade, unlike other regional inter-governmental organisations such as the European Union, the Organisation of American States and the African Union.
The plan to drafting a “people-centred charter,” a term used by Asean, surfaced in December 2005, when Asean heads of state met in Kuala Lumpur and adopted the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the Asean Charter.
While Asean claims that the drafting of the charter has been “people-centred,” the real voice of the people hasn't been heard, because of the lack of people participation in drafting the charter.
Throughout the two-year process, a number of key civil society organisations in the region, many of which come under the banner of the Solidarity for Asia People's Advocacy (SAPA) Working Group on Asean (a network of Asian NGOs and trade unions) have made proposals on several key issues including human rights, a credible and efficient body, social and economic justice, participatory democracy, rule of law, the right to development, ecologically sustainable development, cultural diversity and gender equality.
So far, the inclusion of a human rights body in the charter seems to be designed only to provide a soapbox to voice concern rather than to directly address human rights violations.
Both the time-frame and process of charter drafting brings the issues of transparency and accountability of Asean into question. Asean member states have announced with confidence prior to the 2007 summit that the charter will be adopted, despite people’s participation in the process being severely limited.
To take Thailand as an example, the forums that discussed the charter were only open to government bodies, think tanks and a limited number of civil society groups. The forums did nothing to tackle the perception of the people that Asean is irrelevant to their everyday lives.
Instead, it has been left to other civil society groups to try to reach out to Asean officials, the Eminent Person Groups (EPG) and the High Level Task Force on the Drafting of the Asean Charter (HLTF) [drafters of the charter], to bring the people’s concerns to them, rather the other way around.
In Cambodia, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to show up at the NGO-organised forum intended to raise the awareness of the people. This is not to mentioned countries such as Laos, Vietnam, Burma and Brunei where civil society barely exists because of political oppression.
Civil society groups have continued to ask why it was necessary to cram the drafting of the charter into a two-year time frame. Officials would reply that the charter must be signed. How can this be, if the people’s voices are not taken into account?
The public will not see the actual draft of the charter prior to its signing at the Asean summit, less than three weeks away. Recently, more than 200 activists in the Asean+ Civil Society Conference III, held on November 2-4 in Singapore, again called on Asean to ensure transparency through the disclosure of the draft ASEAN charter and to engage in public consultation and discussion before its adoption.
If Asean really wants this charter to be a people-oriented one, it must hear the voices of the people.
Delaying the signing of the Asean charter until this is done will be more acceptable than adopting a “people-centred” charter in name only—in short, a propaganda ploy.
Otherwise, Asean will continue to be seen as an elitist organisation that does not represent the true interests of the people it is supposed to represent.
(First Appears in The Irrawaddy, 7 November 2007)
Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=9251
Asean has functioned without a legally binding document for more than a decade, unlike other regional inter-governmental organisations such as the European Union, the Organisation of American States and the African Union.
The plan to drafting a “people-centred charter,” a term used by Asean, surfaced in December 2005, when Asean heads of state met in Kuala Lumpur and adopted the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the Asean Charter.
While Asean claims that the drafting of the charter has been “people-centred,” the real voice of the people hasn't been heard, because of the lack of people participation in drafting the charter.
Throughout the two-year process, a number of key civil society organisations in the region, many of which come under the banner of the Solidarity for Asia People's Advocacy (SAPA) Working Group on Asean (a network of Asian NGOs and trade unions) have made proposals on several key issues including human rights, a credible and efficient body, social and economic justice, participatory democracy, rule of law, the right to development, ecologically sustainable development, cultural diversity and gender equality.
So far, the inclusion of a human rights body in the charter seems to be designed only to provide a soapbox to voice concern rather than to directly address human rights violations.
Both the time-frame and process of charter drafting brings the issues of transparency and accountability of Asean into question. Asean member states have announced with confidence prior to the 2007 summit that the charter will be adopted, despite people’s participation in the process being severely limited.
To take Thailand as an example, the forums that discussed the charter were only open to government bodies, think tanks and a limited number of civil society groups. The forums did nothing to tackle the perception of the people that Asean is irrelevant to their everyday lives.
Instead, it has been left to other civil society groups to try to reach out to Asean officials, the Eminent Person Groups (EPG) and the High Level Task Force on the Drafting of the Asean Charter (HLTF) [drafters of the charter], to bring the people’s concerns to them, rather the other way around.
In Cambodia, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to show up at the NGO-organised forum intended to raise the awareness of the people. This is not to mentioned countries such as Laos, Vietnam, Burma and Brunei where civil society barely exists because of political oppression.
Civil society groups have continued to ask why it was necessary to cram the drafting of the charter into a two-year time frame. Officials would reply that the charter must be signed. How can this be, if the people’s voices are not taken into account?
The public will not see the actual draft of the charter prior to its signing at the Asean summit, less than three weeks away. Recently, more than 200 activists in the Asean+ Civil Society Conference III, held on November 2-4 in Singapore, again called on Asean to ensure transparency through the disclosure of the draft ASEAN charter and to engage in public consultation and discussion before its adoption.
If Asean really wants this charter to be a people-oriented one, it must hear the voices of the people.
Delaying the signing of the Asean charter until this is done will be more acceptable than adopting a “people-centred” charter in name only—in short, a propaganda ploy.
Otherwise, Asean will continue to be seen as an elitist organisation that does not represent the true interests of the people it is supposed to represent.
(First Appears in The Irrawaddy, 7 November 2007)
Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=9251
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