A caring ASEAN community   Surin Pitsuwan  ;   Former Secretary-General of ASEAN; He chairs the High Level Advisory Panel on the Responsibility to Protect in Southeast Asia.

JAKARTA POST, 09 September 2014

                                                                                                                       

                                                      

The ASEAN Community will soon be established in 2015. It is indeed a critical year when ASEAN member states would have realized their vision of a caring and sharing community. An ASEAN Community is also one that is democratic, just and tolerant and protects its peoples from all forms of violence, including the worst of crimes known to humanity — genocide and atrocity crimes. Commitment to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) therefore provides ASEAN with a major pathway toward realizing its vision of a caring and sharing community and supports ASEAN’s responsibility to provide protection of its own people. The Responsibility to Protect is a responsibility solemnly entered into by all UN Member States, including all 10 ASEAN Members at the 2005 World Summit in New York and a responsibility that converges with the commitment that these same governments have made to each other, through ASEAN’s aspirations of “sharing and caring”. R2P is already encapsulated in various ASEAN instruments, and definitely enshrined in the ASEAN Charter, in spirit, if not in letters. It is for this reason that when, in 2013, the UN Under secretary-general and Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, wrote to me requesting advice on the steps that might be taken to promote the Responsibility to Protect in our region, I responded by convening a small group of eminent Southeast Asians to establish a high-level advisory panel on R2P. This week, we are launching that panel’s report at the UN in New York. In its report, the panel concluded that mainstreaming R2P through existing ASEAN institutions, norms and mechanisms could help the region address its future challenges and deliver on its commitment to build a regional community that is peaceful, just, democratic and caring. The core principles of prevention and protection advanced by R2P are not alien to ASEAN or to its norms and practices. As such, ASEAN ought to consider being proactive in its efforts to mainstream R2P in Southeast Asia. Mainstreaming R2P would give ASEAN a stronger voice in global deliberations on these important issues and other humanitarian challenges faced by the international community We made five specific observations: First, the ultimate objective of R2P — the protection of populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity — is consistent with and integral to the overall goals of an ASEAN Community. Second, the norms and objectives of R2P are not alien to ASEAN and the region is already well endowed with norms relating to the prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes and the protection of populations from them. Third, ASEAN already has important mechanisms and instruments that are particularly relevant to the implementation of the R2P. Fourth, the commitment to R2P made by all UN Member States, including those from ASEAN, is compatible with existing international law. Fifth, as one of the world’s leading regional organizations, ASEAN has worked closely with the UN in promoting international peace and security. Mainstreaming R2P would give ASEAN a stronger voice in global deliberations. For these reasons, the commitment of ASEAN Member States to R2P is a logical extension of the commitments that they have made to each other within the ASEAN framework. Cooperation to protect Southeast Asian peoples from genocide and atrocity crimes is a necessary corollary to the establishment of a caring and sharing ASEAN Community. The adoption of a proactive approach does not imply a demand for huge new bureaucracies, legal treaties or other kinds of major regional architecture beyond what already exists and what ASEAN Member States have already committed to. Thanks to the evolution of ASEAN as a political and security community, Southeast Asia is already well endowed with norms, institutions capacities and mechanisms that can be utilized to support the goals of R2P and build the ASEAN Community. There are modest steps that governments can take to fulfill their commitments. At the regional level, they could support efforts to raise awareness and public knowledge of R2P through education, high-level dialogue, including R2P in the region’s security deliberations and training curricula, supporting inter-parliamentary dialogue, and academic research. They could also develop and strengthen regional capacity for early warning and assessment through the existing institutions, mechanisms and relevant sectoral bodies within ASEAN. They could strengthen consultation and exchange on issues relating to the prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes and the protection of vulnerable populations from these crimes, in accordance with ASEAN frameworks and instruments. Our governments could also consider incorporating the salience of the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity into the future agenda of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). Civil society efforts to promote human rights protection and advance the norms and principles of atrocities prevention could be supported and enhanced. There is a range of steps that could be adopted at the national level, too. Governments could continue and further develop dialogue amongst stakeholders on building national institutions to support the prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes. They could consider signing, ratifying and implementing relevant international treaties relating to these crimes. They could also give urgent consideration to the UN Secretary-General’s recommendation that all states conduct a national assessment of risk and resilience and participate in dialogue and peer review. To achieve all this, governments should consider appointing a senior-level official as national focal point for the Responsibility to Protect, to coordinate national efforts and lead engagement in regional and global dialogue. A caring ASEAN Community is one that protects its own people from the very worst of crimes known to humanity, namely genocide and atrocity crimes. This is no less than what ASEAN Member States have pledged themselves to, through their various commitments to developing the ASEAN Community and through their unanimous commitment to the R2P at the 2005 World Summit. Now is the time for us to become proactive in delivering on these commitments for all our peoples. ●