Cha-am, Thailand - The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Friday inaugurated a human rights commission for the region, which critics have already dismissed as "toothless."The inauguration of the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Human Rights Commission occurred at an ASEAN summit in Cha-am, hours after half the representatives of participating civil society groups were rejected for an audience with the ASEAN leaders.
The governments of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore rejected the delegates chosen by the civil society organizations to meet with the leaders, now a scheduled event at ASEAN summits to demonstrate the group's new "people orientation."
The rejected delegates were Cambodia's Nay Vanda; Laos' Manichanh Philaphanh; Myanmar's Khin Ohmar; the Philippines' Crescencia Lucerno, a Franciscan nun; and Singapore's Sinapan Sanaydorai, a labour activist.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, appointed two former police chiefs to represent civil society for its country instead.
The Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai civil society representatives walked out of the scheduled talks with the leaders in protest.
"We felt we could not be treated this way," Indonesian civil society representative Yuyun Wahyuningrum said. "We don't understand why they are so afraid of us."
"It's disturbing that this is happening at a time the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Human Rights Commission is being launched," said Debbie Stothard, head of the civil society group the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma.
The irony was apparently lost on Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who presided over the inauguration ceremony.
"For members of civil society, you should rest assured that you now have a partner with whom to work," Abhisit said of the new commission.
Abhisit on Friday opened the three-day summit in Cha-am, 130 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, with a call for a more dynamic, action-based ASEAN as it moves toward its goal of achieving an integrated ASEAN Community similar to the European Union by 2015.
"We have to start thinking about a new approach in the way we do things," Abhisit said. "Our institutional structures should be strengthened so that the decisions can be made promptly whereas their execution can also be done in a timely manner."
Thailand's role as host of the summit was tarnished by a diplomatic tiff with neighbouring Cambodia, also an ASEAN member.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said in Phnom Penh before the summit that he would welcome Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra to Cambodia and would refuse to extradite him to Thailand, where Thaksin faces a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power.
"If millions of Thais support Thaksin, why can't I?" Hun Sen asked in Cha-am upon his arrival to attend the summit. Abhisit, at a press conference, suggested that Hun Sen had been misinformed about Thaksin and was being used by the billionaire former businessman.
The highlight of the summit was the inauguration of the ASEAN Human Rights Commission, which critics have labelled as "toothless" in a region notorious for human rights abuses.
The much-debated commission has been faulted for lacking independence from the 10 participating ASEAN governments, which include human rights pariah Myanmar and other poor performers such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Commissioners on the new ASEAN human rights body were to be appointed by their respective governments, raising immediate questions about the commission's effectiveness.
The commission has no mandate to intervene in human rights violations in member countries but is to concentrate more on promoting regional understanding of human rights issues.
ASEAN has been widely criticized in the past for not dealing with human rights abuses in its own backyard, specifically for failing to pressure Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political prisoners. Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house detention.
The summit was also due to see the signing of declarations on food security, regional connectivity, disaster management and cultural exchanges.
Thailand is this year's chair of ASEAN, which now holds two summits per year. Next year, Vietnam is to chair the group, whose members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Besides drawing the leaders of ASEAN, the leaders of Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, ASEAN's main partners, are also scheduled to attend the summit in Cha-am.
