We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2015
This chapter explores how the ASEAN Charter has changed or will change ASEAN in four areas: (1) democracy; (2) human rights cooperation; (3) becoming a more rules-based organization; and (4) organizational structure. It will not attempt to examine how the Charter is going to change the member states of ASEAN. That important but highly sensitive question will have to be addressed by each member state concerned.
DEMOCRACY IN ASEAN
As an inter-governmental organization, ASEAN is actually very democratic. Just look at the following evidence: sovereign equality as one of the principles (Article 2, Paragraph 2a of the Charter); every member state is equal in representation and participation in ASEAN; annual rotation of the ASEAN chairmanship; no weighted voting right or veto power; decision-making by consultation and consensus; and equal contribution to the annual operational budget of the ASEAN Secretariat, etc.
Sovereign equality begets non-interference. But non-interference cannot be absolute when a state joins a regional grouping like ASEAN and takes part in its community-building endeavour. Hence the Charter includes two new principles: “shared commitment and collective responsibility in enhancing regional peace, security and prosperity” (Article 2, Paragraph 2b) and “enhanced consultations on matters seriously affecting the common interest of ASEAN” (Article 2, Paragraph 2g). All the principles in Article 2 must be accepted and upheld as a whole set. No member state can pick and choose to highlight some principles and ignore the rest.
Unlike the EU, ASEAN has never prescribed any political criteria of its membership. The Charter's Article 6 on Admission of New Members merely lists the following: (a) geographical location in Southeast Asia; (b) recognition by all ASEAN member states; (c) agreement to be bound and to abide by the Charter; and (d) ability and willingness to carry out the obligations of membership.
Consequently, ASEAN may be the only inter-governmental organization in the world with such amazing political diversity.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
