Upholding human rights with regional characteristics: mapping the evolving ASEAN human rights mechanisms

Abstract

The first decade of the 21st century has witnessed a growing interest in, and steady increase of, intra-regional cooperation for promotion and protection of human rights in the territory of ASEAN. Not only has the Association established the first official regional human rights body in Asia Pacific, but specialized human rights organs have been created in the ASEAN structure to promote and protect the rights of the socially and economically disadvantaged, namely, migrant workers, women and children. In the meantime, since the mid-1990s a number of civil society groups and human rights networks in Southeast Asia have developed to function either as Track II channels, or as critical participants, of regional human rights institution-building process. Unfortunately, international scholarship of Southeast Asian political economy and regional development—including research communities in Taiwan has paid only scant attention to this normative and crucial process of regional integration.