Human Rights Treaty Ratification Behavior: The ASEAN Way of Creating Standards

The signing of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration in 2012 supposedly provides a long awaited triumph for human rights in the region and a measure by which regional human rights can finally prevail in parallel with the new ASEAN Human Rights Body. The importance of the new ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights lies in it being the first commission of its kind in Asia and a signal that human rights is finally being mainstreamed and accepted. However, as AICHR undertook its first work-plan and drafted the AHRD which fell below international standards, ASEAN's rhetoric/reality gap again came into plain view. It is my argument that there are two primary challenges to realizing universal regional human rights standards; ASEAN’s constitutive norms/identity and fragmentation of human rights understandings in national legal interpretations of international human rights instruments. To substantiate this I will analyze primary documentation and treaty ratification behavior of ASEAN states in an attempt to find out what are interests and preferences of ASEAN states in terms of human rights by analyzing treaties and reservations/declaration/statements which are attached to international human rights instruments that ASEAN states sign/accede to. Furthermore, I will demonstrate that treaty ratification behavior of ASEAN states is generally consistent with two hegemonic strains of regional thought: sovereignty fears and cultural resistance to human rights norms and standards.