“The case for a SAARC regional human rights mechanism”: Statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

23 November 2011

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to address you today in the course of my visit to the Maldives and to make the case for a South Asian regional human rights mechanism. I would like to thank His Excellency the President, the Government of the Maldives, and the University of Maldives for this very special invitation.

As an island state, surrounded by the vast Indian Ocean, the Maldives has a special vantage point from which to view its regional neighbourhood. It has been shaped not only by its unique environment, but by centuries of migration, trade and the transmission of culture across this region. I think of my own grandparent’s journey, as indentured labourers from Tamil Nadu to South Africa at the end of the 19th century, in reflecting on this Indian ocean community.

Therein lies the first and greatest challenge for an emerging regionalism in South Asia – the region’s very diversity. From the highest point on earth to its lowest lying atolls. From some of the world’s most populous countries, to some of its most sparsely populated. Societies that have been shaped by the great religious traditions of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, and divided by a myriad of ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples and caste groups.

But within this diversity, run some important bonds, not least of which is a common aspiration for democracy, the rule of law and human rights. The leaders of independence movements in the sub-continent inspired a generation of struggles against colonisation, injustice and apartheid. The Constitutions of South Asian countries contain strong chapters of fundamental human rights and have been reinforced by a healthy rate of ratification of international human rights treaties.

Now, for the first time in decades, all eight members of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation enjoy democratically elected governments, breaking the cycle of military coups and royal prerogative. Most countries share common legal and parliamentary traditions and, despite many challenges, their judiciaries produce some of the most progressive jurisprudence in the world. Six of the eight SAARC members now have national human rights institutions, although only three have been assessed as fully compliant with international standards and we must work together on that.

Of course, the promise of these laws and institutions has not always been fulfilled for ordinary people. Politics have been corrupted and institutions undermined. Deep and structural poverty denies countless millions access to services and justice. Armed conflict and terrorism tear at the fabric of societies, and put civilians in the firing line. Gender inequality remains pervasive, and with it violence against women and girls.
But despite these challenges, South Asia has a rightful claim to its own distinct regional human rights experience which can make an important contribution to the progress of human rights worldwide.

It has been in recognition of such diversity that a system of regional human rights arrangements have grown up around the world to complement the national and international systems. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, recognised the value of intergovernmental systems to promote and protect human rights at the regional and sub-regional level, and their development has been continuously encouraged by the General Assembly and Human Rights Council.

Today, we see dynamic and effective regional mechanisms in place in Africa, the Americas, and Europe and emerging in the Arab and Islamic world. These have taken many forms, including regional human rights courts, special rapporteurs and regional human rights commissions. Each has developed its own charter or bill of rights, as well as more specialised treaties on different issues. Most allow petitions from individuals who have not been able to obtain redress at the national level, and some can issue binding judgements.

These regional arrangements can help to reinforce national protection systems and assist national governments in the implementation of their international human rights obligations. They can provide individuals with a more accessible forum for redress than the international human rights bodies. They allow experts to articulate human rights concepts in a way that draws upon local social and cultural traditions. They can help to better address regional and transnational human rights concerns, such as migration, trafficking or the impacts of climate change. They can provide a source of regional wisdom and experience in the development of new human rights standards. Ultimately, they can help to promote peace and security by promoting a people-centred sense of regional community that reinforces and does not undermine national sovereignty.

For too long, Asia and the Pacific have been the missing pieces in this emerging global human rights architecture. The breadth and diversity of the region mitigated against finding a common regional framework that could work for all. For more than 20 years, an intergovernmental process called the Asia Pacific Framework for Regional Cooperation has searched for possible models, promoting in the first instance the development of national human rights institutions and national human rights action plans.

But in recent years, new momentum has been developed at a sub-regional level, notably within SAARC’s Southeast Asian counterpart, ASEAN. Following a dialogue which began as far back as 1993, and was driven in its initial stages by civil society initiatives, ASEAN committed in its new charter to the development of its first regional human rights bodies. In 2009, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights was established, closely followed by a separate ASEAN Commission on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Women and Children. From Maldives I will be travelling to Indonesia this weekend to have my first meetings with this new mechanism.

So too in the Islamic world, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – of which Maldives, Bangladesh and Pakistan are members – has established its own Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission.

While the mandate and composition of these new bodies have several weaknesses, they provide an important source of inspiration and lessons learned for SAARC countries in embarking on a similar journey. Experience in other regions has highlighted a number of elements which are critical to ensuring regional mechanisms are able to develop to their full potential.
First, they should be made up of commissioners who are independent and impartial experts in human rights, not government representatives. Second, any regional human rights treaties or charters should reflect and not detract from international human rights standards which are universal in nature. Third, their mandate should enable them to engage in human rights protection as well as promotion, by receiving individual complaints and making country visits. Fourth, they need to be given competent secretariats with sufficient resources. And finally, their procedures should allow for meaningful interaction with civil society, national institutions and international human rights bodies.

Of course, regional mechanisms evolve and become more effective over time, and we have seen this process unfold in other regions after a less than promising start. Increasingly they are finding common ground among themselves, and my Office has been supporting greater exchanges of experience and best practice between them.

So will SAARC prove ready to rise to this challenge? SAARC already has a commitment to human rights in its founding Charter, reinforced by the SAARC Social Charter and SAARC Democracy Charter. It has begun to elaborate specific conventions with a human rights angle, such as the SAARC Convention on Combating and Prevention of Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution and the SAARC Convention on Promotion of Welfare of Children of 2002. The question is whether SAARC would allow these commitments to be given a more institutional expression, with an emphasis on implementation and enforcement.

I commend President Nasheed for raising this agenda at the last two SAARC summits, most recently last week in Addu City. Regional civil society organisations, encouraged by developments in ASEAN, have also begun to take up the issue and lay the conceptual groundwork for a future SAARC mechanism.

While SAARC leaders at this month’s summit failed to commit themselves to this task, this should not be cause for discouragement. I welcome the strong affirmation of human rights principles in the preamble of the Addu declaration which should give impetus to further advocacy. The ASEAN human rights mechanisms were more than 15 years in the making, and were developed initially through an informal, track two process that allowed ideas to be canvassed and consensus to be built.

I believe this should be the initial phase within SAARC as well, perhaps through the appointment of a group of eminent persons in the human rights field who could develop the concept further. I also believe the six national human rights institutions in SAARC countries can also play a foundational role, perhaps by creating their own platform for regional cooperation. Maldives will have a further opportunity to promote this agenda when it hosts the Asia Pacific Framework meeting next year.

Another starting point would be to take a more sectoral approach, focussing for instance the rights of women and girls, given the wide ratification in the region of CEDAW and CRC and the SAARC conventions already addressing these issues. I welcome, for instance, President Nasheed’s suggestion at the Addu summit for a special commission to be established to address gender inequality in South Asia.

My office stands very ready to accompany this process and assist Maldives and other SAARC member states and partners with expertise and experience from the other regions of the world. The time is right to start this discussion and I am confident that, with Maldives’ dynamic leadership both in ideas and actions, this will ultimately bear fruit. The establishment of a SAARC human rights mechanism would help to fulfil the promise of this region, bring benefit to all SAARC’s people, and advance the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide.

Thank you.