VII Asia
| Author | Hans Goderbauer |
| Published date | 01 March 1994 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934419401200110 |
| Date | 01 March 1994 |
| Subject Matter | Part B: Human Rights News |
NQHR
1/1994
from OAD, the representatives of which, during the NGO workshop and the session of
the Commission, showed a very constructive attitude quite different from the Commis-
sion's Secretariat in Banjul, which seems to have preserved the spirit
offormer
days. The
next, 15th ordinary session of the African Commission is scheduled to be held again in
Banjul, The Gambia, from 18 to 27 April 1994.
VII
ASIA
Hans Goderbauer
A. APEC Region
If
left to rival trading powers, discussing human rights issues is doomed to fail as was
demonstrated in November 1993 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
summit meeting in Seattle. 1Although President Clinton, who chaired the meeting, called
for greater individual and political freedoms as a condition for granting preferential
trading status on US markets, the leaders of the Asia-Pacific nations - who convened for
the first time - refrained from issuing concrete statements on human rights. Given his
view on human rights, Indonesian President Suharto's offer to host a second APEC
summit in Jakarta in 1994 (since Indonesia will be acting as the next chairman of APEC),
is not likely to contribute to making APEC into the - still missing - regional forum for
addressing human rights.
Human rights issues in the APEC region were, however, raised by Asia Watch, a US
non-governmental organisation. In its report, published concurrently with the APEC
summit, Asia Watch arrives at the conclusion that it was not so much the nature of the
human rights abuses that was at stake during the past year but rather the debate over how
to address them."
It
identifies two major factors that affected this debate. First, it is
pointed out that Asian NGOs, through their increased regional cooperation, were able to
articulate a vision of human rights as opposed to the 'Asian concept of human rights'
promoted by their governments, particularly in East Asia." While the latter stressed the
importance of development rights, NGOs nevertheless drew the attention to the negative
impact of development and the human rights implications thereof. Second, Asia Watch
indicates that authoritarian governments on the other hand, by sticking to their 'Asian
concept', reserved
for
themselves the right to decide when the appropriate level of
development (economic growth, alleviation of poverty) has been reached that allows for
more political openness. Only when governments in some way work together across
geographical barriers (as in ASEAN), it is observed, countries are about to develop a
regional mechanism to address human rights concerns.
Underlining the role of NGOs, Asia Watch states that, in general, violations of
political and civil rights were most severe in countries where local NGOs were not
For reference, see NQHR Vol. 11 (1993),
No.4,
pp. 498-501.
Asia Watch, Human
Rights
in the APEC Region, Vol. 5, No. 19, New York, November 1993. The 42-page
report covers recent human rights developments in(and theUS policy towards) Burma, China/Tibet, Hong
Kong, Indonesia/East Timor, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
as well as the current human rights situation in the US. The 'Bangkok NGG Declaration on Human Rights'
of March 1993 is added as appendix.
Asia Watch argues that much of the international community, by focusing on East Asia where the rate of
economic growth is
high
and governments created the
said'
Asian concept', have largely ignored the Indian
subcontinent.
88
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