ASEAN’in İnsan Hakları Perspektifinin Dönüşen Niteliği: Vizyon ve Uygulama

Abstract

The matter of human rights was not a priority topic in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regionalism in the 20th century. However, human rights have become an important issue of cooperation in the ASEAN regionalism in the 21st century. From this point of view, this article analyzes the motivations that guide ASEAN cooperation regarding human rights, the historical development of the cooperation process and the problems faced by cooperation in the field of human rights in practice. The article’s main argument is that while ASEAN has strengthened collaboration in human rights in theory in the 21st century, it has not developed a similar behavior in practice, and there is an imbalance between the theory and practice in cooperation concerning human rights. This study shows that ASEAN’s traditional method of collaboration based on consensus-based decision-making and non-binding institutions has caused to a decrease in the effectiveness of cooperation over human rights and means that ASEAN is unable to reply effectively to human rights violations.