'SE Asia states should have own rights bodies'

Manila, July 31: Malaysia's foreign minister said today that Southeast Asian governments, including Myanmar's military junta, should first create their own human rights commissions before a regional body is established.

''Before you talk about human rights outside, in the wider context, you must have your own human rights body,'' Syed Hamid Albar told reporters.

Albar's comment came after Southeast Asian foreign ministers agreed in principle to create a regional human rights body, pointing to the difficulties that lay ahead in setting up such a body in a region where human rights are often suppressed.

Although they hailed it as a historic move, the ASEAN foreign ministers have said they only agreed that a provision allowing a human rights body to be created should be inserted into the first draft of a proposed constitution for the bloc.

No details on the scope or a start date were agreed.

ASEAN leaders will discuss and amend the final draft for the constitution at a meeting in November but Albar said the human rights provision would not be removed.

''We must be seen not to be allergic or not supportive of human rights,'' he told reporters.

He admitted that hammering out the terms of reference would take a long time.

But calling for individual states to first set up their own human rights bodies would further delay it.

Myanmar, whose persecution of opposition groups and minorities has embarrassed ASEAN, and the communist one-party states of Laos and Vietnam were initially opposed to the idea of a regional rights organisation and are unlikely to be in any rush to set up their own national versions.

Only four ASEAN members have human rights bodies but even within Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, local activists have complained that they are merely for show.

In Thailand, the human rights commission's only role is to watch for possible human rights abuses and produce an annual report. It cannot bring any legal action.

In the Philippines, the local human rights body has been unable to bring substantial pressure on the government even after the United Nations said earlier this year that soldiers were behind many of the deaths of left-wing activists.

This week, US-based Human Rights Watch said a new anti-terror law in the Philippines contained ''dangerous over-broad provisions that violate human rights standards.'' New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who is in Manila for the ASEAN Regional Forum security meeting later this week, said the decision to set up a regional human rights body was a good beginning at tackling a key issue.

''I think its a sign of maturity that's fast emerging in ASEAN,'' he told sources. ''They have confronted it and I think it holds bright promise for the future.''

Reuters>