ASEAN AND THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT (R2P) : A CASE STUDY OF CYCLONE NARGIS IN MYANMAR

Abstract

The Responsibility to Protect, commonly abbreviated as R2P or RtoP, was first mentioned in the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICSS) in 2001 and adopted in the World Summit Outcome Document by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. Accordingly, states and the international community are obliged to be responsible for protecting its citizens from the four crimes – genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. The first R2P-related case in Southeast Asia can be found in the post-Nargis cyclone situation where the Burmese victims suffered from the natural disaster and man-made violation of human rights by the military government. The research adopts Acharya’s theory of Norm localization as theoretical framework for analysis. In norm localization, norm entrepreneurs play an important role in adapting foreign norms to be congruent with local norms. This study aims at exploring the diffusion of R2P into ASEAN and the impacts of R2P on ASEAN’s management of cyclone Nargis. The thesis finds the connecting links between the external norms - R2P and the local norms – promotion and protection of human right in a people-oriented community in ASEAN Charter and ASEAN Political Security Blueprint. This provides a normative ground for the evolution of R2P in ASEAN. In the case of post-Nargis cyclone situation, under the international pressure of possible military intervention in the name of R2P, ASEAN through ASEAN’s Secretary-General played a vital role in negotiations to bridge the junta and international community, and facilitating humanitarian assistance. With the ASEAN-led Coordinating Mechanism and Tripartite Core Group, ASEAN was successful in fulfilling the protection of cyclone-affected victims and maintaining local norms of non-intervention in member states’ affairs. This has implications on human security and human rights protection in ASEAN in future.