By Tamara Nair SYNOPSIS Climate change processes are acknowledged as critical components of regional and international security, and ASEAN should mobilise all segments of its population and existing plans of action to tackle this challenge. The role of women in ASEAN’s peace and security including climate change should be acknowledged and strengthened systematically. The ASEAN […]
Insights on Southeast Asia and Human Rights
is a platform to share ideas and perspectives on human rights from actors who have worked on and/or studied human rights in the region, including by engaging with ASEAN mechanisms. HRRC also welcomes entries from aspiring writers in the human rights and sociocultural arena in ASEAN. The Centre shall select and publish one article per month for this platform. Any query on article publication, including submission requirements, may be directed to info@hrrca.org. All views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in these articles belong solely to the authors, and do not necessarily reflect that of the Centre.
Human Rights: ASEAN’s Changing Perspectives
ASEAN’S VIEW on human rights is changing ─ as seen in the last ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting hosted virtually by Vietnam from 9-12 September 2020. This could be detected in the paragraphs of the joint communique discussing the crisis in Rakhine state in Myanmar.
Human rights as an issue has drawn ASEAN attention especially since 2017 when 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Bangladesh after a brutal Myanmar military crackdown against the Rohingya allegedly following attacks by Rohingya insurgents. It represents the clearest case of a violation of human rights by an ASEAN country today.