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.