By GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer, Oct 23rd, 2009
CHA-AM, Thailand – Southeast Asian nations inaugurated their first regional human rights commission Friday, a watchdog immediately derided as toothless by activists who walked out of a meeting to protest being snubbed by five of the governments involved.
The annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations earlier began inauspiciously when half the bloc’s 10 leaders failed to show up at the opening of the three-day conference due to a tropical storm, domestic politics, a VIP visit and a possible illness.
One of the first orders of business was the inauguration of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. Critics say the commission will do little to deter human rights violators because it focuses on promotion — rather than protection — of human rights and has no authority to impose punishments.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva defended the commission a “a significant milestone” — it is the first human rights watchdog in ASEAN’s 42-year history.
“The issue of human rights is not about condemnation, but about awareness,” Abhisit said, adding that improving human rights is an “evolutionary process.”
Activists, however, condemned both the commission’s powerlessness and the exclusion of members of civil society from Thursday’s summit.
“It is a big shame to our dreams for genuine democracy in the region. It’s like all of the human rights of the people in this region have been violated,” said Sister Crescenia L. Lucero, a leading rights advocate and Roman Catholic nun.
Lucero was to have represented the Philippines at the dialogue. But she and other civil society representatives were excluded from Thursday’s meeting, according to Debbie Stothard of The ASEAN People’s Forum, an umbrella group of non-governmental organizations.
Stothard said the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore and the Philippines rejected meeting with the activists as previously scheduled. Instead, she said, Singapore and Myanmar flew in substitutes from government-sponsored agencies, with Myanmar including a former high-ranking police officer.
In response, activists from Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia walked out of the meeting in protest.
The exclusion of activists from the summit — held under the motto of “Empowering the Peoples” — also drew fire from a leading international human rights group.
“This confirms our worst fears, because an intergovernmental body has always been second best, but an intergovernmental body that won’t even talk to its own citizens is a joke, is worthless,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
ASEAN’s 10 member countries include military-run Myanmar, communist-run Laos and Vietnam plus several countries whose governments routinely persecute opposition parties or political activists.
Members of ASEAN have recently escalated their criticism of Myanmar, particularly over the detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But the summit will again likely act by consensus, avoid confrontations and maintain that the group’s approach to engaging Myanmar works better than the West’s sanctions and threats.
The summit will also sign a declaration on climate change and discuss food security, bio-energy, disaster management and how trade barriers can be brought down to bring about a European Union-style grouping by 2015.
The bloc will also meet with leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
The opening of the summit came with only half of the region’s leaders in attendance.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was busy hosting an official visit by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Indonesia is swearing in a new government and Malaysia’s government was presenting its budget to Parliament, said Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was running late due to Typhoon Lupit, the third storm in a month due to hit the Philippines, her spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said.
Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah was in Cha-am but didn’t show up at the opening ceremony amid reports that he was not feeling well.
Thailand has deployed more than 36,000 military and police to keep security both in Bangkok and at the beach resort of Cha-am, 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the capital.
The government is still smarting from the storming of the East Asian Summit in April in the coastal city of Pattaya, where anti-government protesters charged through thin police ranks and forced the evacuation of several leaders by helicopter and boat.
A main protest organizer said no new demonstrations are planned this week in Bangkok or at the summit venue.
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