Asean can’t keep ignoring mass atrocities
Since its inception in 1967, Asean as a regional intergovernmental organisation has consistently promoted its cooperation on economic, political, security, military, educational and socio-cultural aspects among its members.
Asean is committed to promoting regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter.
However, in its long and dynamic history, the regional bloc has racked up a number of unenviable records.
Regarding the mass atrocities allegedly committed by Myanmar’s military regime against Rohingya Muslims, Asean, with its non-interference policy, has remained silent and tends to ignore such persistent crimes.
CNN reported that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in attacks during the first month of a military crackdown in Myanmar in late August 2017.
About 700,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since the crackdown began and most now live there in squalid conditions in refugee camps.
Mindanao i n the Philippines has endured similar hardship but for many decades.
The conflict between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), formed in 1972 to help realise a proposed autonomous region called Bangsamoro in the south of the archipelago, and the government, which responded by stepping up its crackdown on insurgents, has led to a wave of violent episodes that persist to this day.
Similarly, in Thailand, the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat have since 2007 been known as “red zones” — areas heavily affected by armed violence. This violent insurgency has now lasted over a decade, and the violence there continues to get worse.
Under these circumstances, Asean could collaborate with the Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes (Gaamac) movement — an inclusive and state-led voluntary network of partners that support, are interested in or are involved in preventing atrocities.
Gaamac supports states that want to develop national mechanisms to curb atrocities in collaboration with other initiatives, networks and actors.
Its chief objective is to provide an open and global forum to facilitate greater international cooperation, networking,
exchange of experience, trusted peerto-peer support, sharing of information and provision of expertise among states and organisations.
With this collaboration, Asean could formulate a regional action plan to prevent deeply unsettling crimes against humanity by optimising the roles of its Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to operate its regional mandates to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in the region.
To support the implementation of a regional action plan, the Southeast Asia National Human Rights Institutions Forum (SEANF), as a sub-regional network, could also undertake joint activities with AICHR.
This would be further enhanced with the support of respective national human rights institutions to address the importance of clamping down on and stopping mass atrocities in the region.
Here are some of the most important takeaways and procedures that need to be
taken into account if Asean decides to put together a regional action plan.
First, the AICHR and Seanf could facilitate each Asean member state to identify and strengthen its line ministries and other related institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, that have a mandate to deal with preventing mass atrocities.
This should target governmental institutions including security forces and local government agencies. Non-government institutions could be represented by religious leaders, women, youth, academics and the media.
Second, the two bodies could instruct each Asean member to prepare the necessary policy framework and legislation.
Most Asean countries have ratified major international human rights instruments. Indonesia, for example, has ratified eight of the nine major UN human rights instruments, including the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT), and the International Convention for the
Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances (ICPPED).
It has also adopted seven domestic human rights laws and a dedicated court of law that can be used to prosecute all perceived atrocities.
Third, education, training and campaigning on the importance to prevent mass atrocities should be made with the full support of the AICHR and SEANF.
The values of justice, peace and tolerance have to be introduced at all levels and all in channels of education, then a curriculum and learning materials have to be developed to introduce the idea of stopping atrocities as a lifelong education process.
Lessons can also be learned from other Asean countries. The three decades of bloody tension between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian military, for example, has been solved peacefully through the peace accord signed by both sides in Helsinki on Aug 15, 2015.
Since the accord was adopted, it appears not a single drop of blood has been spilled in Aceh. This comes in stark contrast to the situation during the conflict, when Aceh saw three or four lives lost every day.
The fourth aspect is the implementation of norms and standards of human rights to address the ongoing atrocities in the region. The action plan should share modalities used to solve past atrocities in any Asean member state, for example the mass killings in Indonesia from 1965-1966, the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia from 19751979 and the Aceh tensions in Indonesia.
The final aspect is the monitoring process of how the regional action plan is implemented.
Hopefully, Asean can one day become a more human rights-friendly community in a region free of atrocities.
Hafid Abbas is a professor at the State University of Jakarta, Indonesia and a former president of the Southeast Asia National Human Rights Institutions Forum (SEANF).