Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Thailand, the country holding the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, came up with this motto for the recently ratified ASEAN Charter—“ASEAN Charter for ASEAN Peoples.” To observers, this phrase seems to herald a new and positive change for this sub-regional, intergovernmental body that has always been referred to as a “governments’ club” because of the lack of involvement of its constituencies in its processes.

On Oct. 21, 2008, following the ratification of the Charter by Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, the ASEAN secretary general, said that “ASEAN will be a rules-based, people-oriented and more integrated entity.”

It is in the chapter on the purposes of ASEAN (Article 1) where it is emphasized that the association will “promote a people-oriented ASEAN in which all sectors of society are encouraged to participate in, and benefit from […] ASEAN integration and community building.” This is one of the more positive points of the Charter, but the civil society groups, which have never been informed of the ASEAN processes, are skeptical of whether the ASEAN can actually fulfill this. The skepticism becomes evident when an ASEAN civil society group that wants to raise certain regional or international issues chooses to go directly to UN bodies rather than to the ASEAN.

As the phrase “peoples” have been overly used by the ASEAN, we in the civil society are wondering if the ratification of the ASEAN Charter can transform outright the ASEAN into a people-oriented organization and if the Charter itself can be an inspiring document for the ASEAN peoples.

The more than 40 civil society organizations monitoring the work of ASEAN (under the umbrella of the Solidarity for Asian Peoples’ Advocacy [SAPA] Working Group on ASEAN) came up with the analysis of the Charter last year, prior to its signing. This network viewed the Charter as “a disappointment [since] it is a document that falls short of what is needed to establish a people-centered (ASEAN).”

The ASEAN Charter talks of the promotion and protection of human rights and social justice, good governance, and respect for the rule of law, UN Charter and international law. However, it holds dear non-interference and consensus as core principles. Thus we see the ASEAN abiding by the principle of non-interference without any question, even as the human rights situation in Burma continues to deteriorate.

The ASEAN has yet to assess whether the human rights situation in Burma has improved since 1997, the year that country was accepted as a member of the association. Human rights defenders (HRDs) in Burma have been calling international attention to the plight of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 political prisoners, the continuing use of child soldiers, and the recent detention of dozens of Burmese HRDs, including the student leaders of 1988, who took part in the September Saffron Revolution.

When we look at the Charter, chapter by chapter, we can see that the “people-centered” principle the document espouses remains a dream and is still so far away from reality. The Charter is state-centric, having been written by government officials without genuine, broad consultations with civic groups.

There is no mention of such institutionalized mechanism as the NGO Consultative Status to the UN, where civil society can contribute to or comment during the decision-making processes of the ASEAN. No such mechanism is mentioned in chapters relating to the ASEAN Summit, ASEAN Coordinating Council, ASEAN Community Councils, or the ASEAN Secretariat. Civil society gets mentioned only in relation to the role of the ASEAN Foundation in promoting greater awareness of the “ASEAN identity [and] close collaboration among the business sector, civil society, academia and other stakeholders in ASEAN.”

In the view of the ASEAN leaders, a civil society’s place in the ASEAN is only in the socio-cultural arena, where it may be informed of or discuss related concerns. But it is not allowed to play an important role in the decision-making process relative to security and economy.

The ASEAN should take note that civil society groups in the region are getting increasingly eager to see the association become more responsive to the ASEAN peoples’ concerns, especially those relating to trans-boundary issues like human trafficking and those affecting migrant workers and refugees. And such a thrust would be in line with ASEAN’s plan to establish the ASEAN human rights body.

The ASEAN Peoples’ Forum/4th ASEAN Civil Society Conference—to be held prior to the 14th ASEAN Summit in Chiang Mai—is an important venue where ASEAN leaders and governments can actually listen and hear what their ASEAN constituencies want the ASEAN to be and to do.

The ASEAN Charter may not be the kind of Charter that the ASEAN peoples actually want, but it could serve as the trigger for the transformation of the ASEAN into a more people-oriented body. The ASEAN, during its deliberation, needs to open up and to listen more to its peoples. This is a must for the ASEAN governments if they wish to push for a more comprehensive and radical change; otherwise, the association will continue to be “people-disoriented.”

Pokpong Lawansiri is the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development’s Southeast Asia program officer.