The rule of law and human rights in ASEAN

Abstract

This chapter begins with an assessment of the rule of law and human rights obligations Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has assumed under the Charter and other instruments and then consider the way in which the Blueprints 2025 propose to implement these obligations. The 2015 Blueprints commit ASEAN to a “rules-based community” and the rule of law is a central constitutive element of such a community. The ASEAN Charter marks the transition of ASEAN from a political association to a regional organization with a legal identity. The lack of institutional mechanisms to instantiate the ASEAN Charter’s principles of the rule of law and good governance appears clearly from a survey of the treatment of such issues in the ASEAN Blueprints and in the Workplan of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration reaffirms the commitment of ASEAN to the Charter principles.