March 2012

ASEAN Integration in Human Rights

Problems and Prospects for Legalization and Institutionalization

This article discusses the efforts of Southeast Asian countries to address human rights issues at the regional level through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It seeks to elucidate the position taken by the ASEAN member states and their representatives towards the design of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) — the regional body tasked with a non-adjudicative function of assessing and addressing human rights issues in ASEAN. Tracing the discourse from differing viewpoints, the article identifies an evolutionary path down which ASEAN states are pursuing integration in human rights issues through a realist-rationalist perspective.

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