Challanges in the legal harmonization process in ASEAN – A look from the practice of human rights law

Abstract

The ASEAN community is looking for the most urgent and common legal issues for harmonization. This process must be based on the principles and general provisions accepted by the country-members of the Community which are provided in the Charter, framework agreements and protocols. The legal harmonization of ASEAN not only plays a great role for ASEAN countries in resolving common concerns, affecting the development of each member state and the Community, but also left a great impact on the unification of the law towards the Community’s legal system. In the areas where the ASEAN Community has obvious opportunities for harmonization and integration, the human rights law needs to be prioritized. In fact, after the adoption of the ASEAN Charter, ASEAN has made numerous efforts to harmonize the human rights law. However, there are several serious challenges to the harmonization and integration of this area. This article identifies and analyzes the challenges to the legal harmonization of ASEAN from human rights perspective.