From an Elite- to a People-Centered Regionalism; from an Illiberal Peace to a Human Rights Regime? The Prospect of Human Rights in Southeast Asia.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been credited for developing a diplomatic code of conduct that has helped sustain relative stability since the 1960s. This code of conduct has eventually become one of the foundations for regional order and institution-building in the wider Asia-Pacific. But these norms or the ASEAN Way have also allowed the subregion’s post-colonial states to engage in “state-building” projects focusing on internal security and economic development which have sometimes been at the expense of basic human rights.But much has changed over forty years. There is a small, yet growing transnational civil society network in the area and some Southeast Asian states are making the (painful) transition to democracy. Moreover, ASEAN’s current rhetoric emphasizes the hope of creating a “caring” and “people-centered” organization. The words democracy and rule of law have likewise found their way in various recommendations and in some official declarations. Yet the prospect of ASEAN’s democratization and the creation of an effective regional human rights mechanism remain unclear if not bleak. Through an approach that brings together insights from political science, sociology, history and area studies, the paper examines the processes and mechanisms of institutional change at the national and regional levels in Southeast Asia. It also scrutinizes the growing tensions between the changing state in Southeast Asia and ASEAN. ASEAN had, for the longest time, been an elite-driven organization. Its norms and principles have allowed its members to proceed along different state-building trajectories relatively unencumbered by demands from its neighbors. Yet by allowing its member countries to “diverge”, ASEAN and its members are faced with the growing challenge of coordination, cooperation and harmonization of policies and values in the midst of growing extra-regional and domestic demands. The paper traces the institutional foundations for denying human rights in selected Southeast Asian states and looks at their effects on a proposed regional mechanism for human rights in the subregion. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]