On 18 November 2012 the ‘Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) adopted the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD). ASEAN has existed since 1967 and as a result allows Southeast Asia to be identified as a ‘region’ comparable with other regions such as Africa, the Americas and Europe which have been seen as such in human rights terms for over 40 years. However, until recently Southeast Asia has not been involved in a process of regional human rights institutionalization which in other regions has been an important means of implementing international human rights treaty commitments adopted by their member-States in global forums. Furthermore, the ten States of ASEAN as a group are parties to relatively few of the principal international human rights standard-setting and monitoring regimes. Hence vesting ASEAN with a human rights mandate would seem to present an opportunity to enhance the range of human rights commitments to which ASEAN States are subject. However, after reviewing the ‘ASEAN human rights mechanism’ it is concluded that much recent ASEAN activity amounts either to political rhetoric or has potential to fragment the human rights norms recognized by those ASEAN States which are committed to international human rights treaties. For the ASEAN States which are relatively uncommitted to international human rights treaty regimes, participating in the ASEAN mechanism may reduce pressure to recognize international norms.
