ASEAN to set up regional human rights commission

PHILIPPINES: Southeast Asian foreign ministers agreed Monday to set up a regional human rights commission, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said.

Myanmar had resisted the proposal, to be enshrined in a charter for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. A diplomat involved in negotiations on the issue said lower-level officials finished a draft of the charter on Sunday with a reference that Myanmar did not accept the commission, leaving it to foreign ministers to resolve the issue.

"We have agreed that there will be a human rights body," Yeo said after the foreign ministers met for four hours to discuss the draft. "There was a consensus."

Yeo said details will be settled later but that the foreign ministers hoped to have everything worked out by the time that ASEAN leaders hold their annual summit in November, when they plan to approve the charter.

Earlier Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo urged Southeast Asian nations on Monday to create a stronger "united front" to achieve social justice and development, but divisions over a proposed human rights commission showed the depth of differences in the diverse region.

"Our collective desire to bring social justice, economic opportunity and integrated security to the region is our common ground," Arroyo told foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations at the start of their annual meeting.

On Sunday, military-ruled Myanmar, which has been condemned for its dismal human rights record, blocked creation of an ASEAN human rights commission, according to a diplomat on a task force writing the group's first-ever charter.

The mini-constitution, to be presented to the foreign ministers later will state that Myanmar did not accept the commission, leaving it to foreign ministers to resolve the issue, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to speak to the media.

Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam also suggested they are not ready for the immediate establishment of such a body, which could deal with human rights violations in the region, the diplomat said.

Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam - ASEAN's most recent members - all have authoritarian or single-party governments.

Arroyo said the charter, designed to make ASEAN a more rules-based organization, would strengthen the group and represent its "commitment to become one single, united front."

Manila, Monday, AP