By Minggu Simon Lhasa, NNN-Bernama
Manila : Foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) have adopted provisions on the establishment of a human rights body in the ASEAN Charter but left the issues on voting on important issues to their heads of state and government to decide later this year.
Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said the foreign ministers, at the 40th Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) here Monday, decided that it was up to the Asean leaders to decide whether to make decisions on certain important issues based on consensus or voting.
"The leaders will determine by themselves how to proceed on certain things," he told a press conference following the issue of a joint communique of the AMM here, adding that there would be some decisions that could be made by other methods apart from consensus, which is the current method agreements are reached by Asean at present.
"On economic issues, the decisions can be less than consensus," he said, affirming that the decision need not be unanimous.
He also disclosed that the draft Asean Charter — which seeks to transform Asean into a rules-based body along the lines of the European Community — also does not require that ASEAN leaders make decisions by consensus.
There is no limitation imposed on them on how they make decisions and this include decisions such as imposing sanctions on member countries. "As far as the leaders are concerned, there are no limitations," he stressed.
The Philippines has been publicly pressing for the inclusion of provisions to set up an Asean human rights body and also for making important decisions through in the Asean Charter, which is targeted for signing in Singapore in November when Asean leaders hold their summit.
On the issue of human rights, Romulo said the establishment of a human rights body has been adopted in the first draft of the charter, and the High Level Task Force which is mandated to draft the charter will work out the details and the term of reference for the body.
Romulo said he does not expect the human rights provision to have any opt-out clause for ASEAN members.
"There will be signatures and I believe they will be bound by it and they agreed to be bound by it," he said, when asked if any Asean country could exclude itself from certain provision of the charter or delay its implementation.
Myanmar is said to be the country which initially have been strongly against provisions for the establishment of a human rights body and for voting on important decisions.
In the joint communique issued here, the AMM expressed concern over the pace of Myanmar's national reconciliation process and urged it to show tangible progress that would lead to a peaceful transition to democracy in the near future.
The joint communique said the foreign ministers took note of the briefing by Myanmar on the recent development in the process of its national reconciliation and peaceful transition to democracy as envisaged in the road map to democracy.
It said that the ministers welcomed the convening of the final session of Myanmar's National Convention, which commenced on July 18 and were encouraged by Myanmar's assurances that the process would be completed within two months.
The communique expressed concern over the detention of political detainees in Myanmar and reiterated the call for their early release.
However, the AMM recognised the fact that Myanmar has tried to address the many and complex challenges it is facing. Thus, the AMM reaffirmed Asean's commitment to remain constructively engaged with Myanmar as part of building "one caring and sharing" regional community together.