Abstract
Twenty years ago, the Tehran Framework, adopted during the yearly Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) regional workshop for Asia-Pacific laid out four pillars, of which one suggested the idea that National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are the most solid foundation at the national level to build an efficient regional human rights mechanism (Baik, Tae-Ung. 2012. Emerging Regional Human Rights Systems in Asia. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 194).
In the absence of a strong regional mechanism, the NHRIs have an important role to play for the promotion and the protection of human rights in the Southeast Asian (SEA) states, in the event where those NHRIs are in conformity with the 1993 Paris Principles. Those principles include independence both in their funding and in their operations, with the possibility of conducting enquiries based on individual communications. According to the Global Alliance on NHRIs (GANHRI), which is mandated by the UN to grade and give accreditation to NHRIs, most of the SEA NHRIs do not enforce those principles at an efficient level, or not at all.
Given the lack of independence of the SEA NHRIs and the inefficiency of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), there has been little literature on the complementarity of the NHRIs and the AICHR in their roles, both at the national and at the regional level. Indeed, we strongly believe that such complementary is a luckily possibility if the NHRIs and the AICHR take their cooperation to the next level.
Our chapter will explore (1) how, within their own mandates, the existing SEA NHRIs and the AICHR can work together to advance the promotion and protection of Human Rights in the region; (2) how laws that would establish NHRIs in the remaining countries could be adopted in order to respect the Paris Principles while being strong foundations to the AICHR; and (3) how best practices from NHRIs evolving in a different regional environment (Inter-American Court of Human Rights, European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), African Commission on Human Rights (AfHRC)) can influence the AICHR to strengthen the relationships between SEA NHRIs.
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Notes
- 1.
Timor-Leste is due to join ASEAN in 2017 and is currently an observer within the AICHR mechanism.
- 2.
In 2007, building on ongoing work across its programmes, OSCE’s ODIHR established a focal point for human rights defenders and NHRIs which closely monitors the situation of human rights defenders and NHRIs in the OSCE region and promotes and protects their interests (see http://www.osce.org/odihr). Similarly, the Council of Europe and its Commissioner for Human Rights have also highlighted the need for states to have Paris Principles–compliant NHRIs in place (see http://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/co-operation-with-national-human-rights-structures?desktop=true).
- 3.
ENNHRI enhances the promotion and protection of human rights across the wider Europe region by bringing together NHRIs to work on a wide range of human rights issues and supporting their development. ENNHRI has a membership of 41 NHRIs from across wider Europe, including Ombudsmen institutions, human rights commissions and institutes: see http://ennhri.org/Promoting-and-protecting-human-rights-across-wider-Europe.
- 4.
The Council of Europe (CoE) is an international organisation whose stated aim is to uphold human rights, democracy, rule of law in Europe and promote European culture. Founded in 1949, it has nowadays 47 member states: see http://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/home.
- 5.
For instance, intervention by Des Hogan on behalf of the European Group of NHRIs, High-Level Conference on the Future of the ECtHR, Interlaken, 18–19 February 2010, available at: https://www.bj.admin.ch/dam/data/bj/staat/menschenrechte/emrk/ber-ministerkonf-fe.pdf and intervention by Beate Rudolf, on behalf of the European Group of NHRIs, High-Level Conference on the Future of the ECtHR, Izmir, 26–27 April 2011, available at: https://www.ihrec.ie/download/doc/izmir_oral_statement_european_group_of_national_human_rights_institutions.doc.
- 6.
See, for example, the intervention of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in Shanagan v. UK or the Polish Helsingki Foundation for Human Rights’ intervention in Staroszczyk v. Poland (no. 59519/00, 22 March 2007).
- 7.
The organization was established in order to achieve among its member states “an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence.” Today, the OAS brings together all 35 independent states of the Americas and constitutes the main political, juridical and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere: see http://www.oas.org/en/about/member_states.asp.
- 8.
The IACHR is a principal and autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (“OAS”). It is composed of seven independent members who serve in a personal capacity. Created by the OAS in 1959 and together with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (“the Court” or “the I/A Court H.R.), installed in 1979, the Commission is one of the institutions within the inter-American system for the protection of human rights (“IAHRS”). See http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/mandate/what.asp.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
See the Five Pensioners Case, 23 February 2003, no°98 (2003), IACHR; or, Barrios Altos Case, 3 September 2001, no. 83 (2001), IACHR.
- 12.
African NHRIs first gathered in Yaoundé (Cameroon) in February 1996 and adopted the Yaoundé Declaration establishing a Coordinating Committee of African National Institutions for the promotion and protection of Human Rights tasked with assisting in the coordination of African NHRIs’ activities and enhancing their visibility. In October 2007, they formally created the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) to replace the Coordinating Committee. There are 44 (out of the 47 NHRIs present on the African continent) members. See http://www.nanhri.org/members/.
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Martin, C. (2020). National Human Rights Institutions in Southeast Asian States: The Necessary Foundation for an Efficient ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. In: Gomez, J., Ramcharan, R. (eds) National Human Rights Institutions in Southeast Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1074-8_3
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