Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Yuyun Wahyuningrum, Senior Advisor on ASEAN and Human Rights, based in Jakarta E-mail: wahyuningrum@gmail.com
About ASEAN
Founding Members Thailand Malaysia Indonesia Philippines Singapore Additional Members
Brunei Darussalam 1984 Viet Nam 1995 Lao PDR 1997 Myanmar 1997 Cambodia 1999
Population 575 million Area 4.5 million square km. Main religions Islam Buddhism Catholicism Combined GDP USD $ 737 Billion Trade USD $ 720 Billion
Home to great ethnic, cultural and religious diversity
Economic
No mention about culture but diversity as it puts :turning the diversity that characterizes the region into oppotunities for business complementation making ASEAN a more dynamic and stronger segment of the global suply chain Para 3
SocioCultural
The community shall nurture talent and promote interaction among ASEAN scholars, writers, artists and media practitioners to help preserve an dptomote ASEANs diverse, culture heritage while fostering regional identity as well as cultivating peoples awareness of ASEAN Para 5
AHRD
Every person has the right, individually or in association with others, to freely take part in cultural life, to enjoy the arts and the benefits of scientific progress and its applications and to benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or appropriate artistic production of which one is the author. Article 32
AHRD, 2012
Five human rights are generally understood as cultural rights (article 32):
Culture means the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, intellectual, emotional and material features that characterize a society or social group. It includes the arts and letters as well as human modes of life, value systems, creativity, knowledge systems, traditions and beliefs.
to decide who can come in/out indigenous people/ ethnic minorities, refugees, Rohingya
Ethnic minority
Cultural rights remain the most acceptable topic across different ideologies, political systems, interests in ASEAN, but at the same time it offers some threats especially when it comes to take different path from the mainstreamed one. The inclusion of cultural rights in AHRD should give a concrete legal and policy framework as well as mechanisms of monitoring and of possible international cooperation and assistance in the area of respecting, protecting, and fulfilling the right to culture. Nevertheless, ASEAN rather use culture for political purposes. How culture link with two important institutions: the power and the house of truth. How universal it is the right to culture?