Myanmar has ratified a proposed international charter that includes controversial human rights provisions, officials said yesterday, a day after regional powers slammed the nation’s ruling junta for extending opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention.
Myanmar’s ratification of the ASEAN charter was to be formalized at a ceremony later yesterday.
But question marks remained about whether Myanmar’s junta, which has jailed hundreds of political dissidents, including Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was willing to adhere to the principles of human rights and respect for rule of law enshrined in the charter.
It was also unclear whether the proposed ASEAN human rights body, the details of which have yet to be hammered out, would have any substantive enforcement or monitoring power.
The charter, expected to come into force by next year, would aim to strengthen the 10-member group of Asian nations, giving it power to sue and be sued, and establishing enforceable financial, trade and environmental rules.
The most controversial part of the charter was a proposed human rights body.
“It’s high time that we concretize the human rights of the people of ASEAN,” Philippine representative to the panel Rosario Manalo said.
Still, it was clear that the body would not have the power to sanction countries that have violated the rights of its citizens.
The Philippines and possibly Thailand would push for the body to have the power to at least monitor human rights violations, one Southeast Asian diplomat said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.
Myanmar was the seventh member of ASEAN to ratify the charter. The Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia have balked at endorsing it, demanding that Myanmar first give firmer commitments to democracy.
The human rights panel, which was to hold its first meeting yesterday to determine the scope of the human rights body, was expected to submit a draft of its recommendations to the ASEAN leaders’ summit in December.
Ignoring international criticism, Myanmar’s junta on May 27 extended Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention by another year, drawing an extraordinary rebuke on Sunday from ASEAN members who usually shy from criticizing each other.
Myanmar officials have issued no public response to that criticism, although its representative at the meeting, Foreign Minister Nyan Win, suggested on Sunday that Aung San Suu Kyi could be freed from house arrest in about six months.
Aung San Suu Kyi has now been detained for more than 12 of the last 18 years at her home in Myanmar.
In a address yesterday to ASEAN foreign ministers, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said ASEAN had only implemented 30 percent of its agreements.
The charter, he said, would help improve that ”somewhat patchy” record as a bulwark against crises, such as the 1997 Asian financial storm.
“If another test comes, ASEAN must not be found wanting again,” Lee said.
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