The Association of Southeast Asian Nations plans to launch a landmark human rights body in October during an annual summit. But diplomats have acknowledged it will have no power to investigate and punish violators.
Constrained by the 10-member bloc's bedrock policy of noninterference in each other's domestic affairs, the body cannot force compliance. Still, its creation has been hailed as a milestone for a region with a long history of human rights atrocities.
Romulo singled out military-ruled Myanmar for its dismal rights record and said ASEAN must recognize that it has human rights problems and think about how it can protect "basic freedoms" to give the regional rights body "an auspicious beginning."
Myanmar has long been a source of embarrassment for ASEAN, which has repeatedly criticized its ruling generals but chose to engage it politically rather than ostracize it. The Philippines, along with Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, is among the most vocal critics of the junta within the grouping, which was founded in 1967.
"Since its acceptance into the ASEAN family in 1997, Myanmar has stated its commitment to democracy and to embark on a national reconciliation process," Romulo said in a statement. "Fulfilling these commitments would be showing true progress."
Carrying out its promise before the rights body's launch would make the body "credible not only to the world community but more importantly to our own peoples," said Romulo
Romulo also reiterated his call for Myanmar's ruling junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and allow the unconditional participation of her party, the National League for Democracy, in free national elections.
ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It admitted Myanmar in 1997, despite strong opposition from Western nations.
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U.S. advocates for a common approach to Burma
During the conference, organized by the think-tank National Bureau of Asian Research and entitled Engaging Asia 2009: Strategies for Success, senior policy leaders and advisors offered analyses of the economic and strategic trends in Asia - with a special focus on implications for the development of effective U.S. policy.
"Viewing relations with a notorious authoritarian regime like Burma as a zero-sum game is in no nation's interest," Steinberg told the National Bureau of Asian Research.
"We want to discuss a common approach with ASEAN, with China, with India and with Japan to find a policy that will improve the lives of the people of Burma and promote stability in this key region," he iterated.
Steinberg said that despite the U.S. reviewing its Burma policy, American "core objectives" would remain unaltered, including the continued search for a "more open" Burma that respects the rights of its people and is integrated into the global economy.
"We all have a common interest in working together to reach a constructive solution that convinces the junta that the path they are pursuing is not in their interest," he prospered.
He said Burma was an issue on which the United States was open to setting up new "flexible" frameworks similar to the six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program.
"The solution to many global problems will not always be in creating new formal institutions or new bureaucracies," he said.
ASEAN countries have historically pursued a policy of “constructive engagement” regarding Burma, focusing on efforts to build economic and political ties. Such an approach has to date been diametrically opposed to U.S. policy, which seeks to pressure Burma's government into political reform through economic sanctions and political ostracism.
For some two decades, Congress and various administrations have imposed economic sanctions and aid restrictions against Burma's military junta. However, persistent questions have arisen as to whether a policy of isolation and pressure has resulted in any lessening of the junta's iron grip over the impoverished country.
Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, during her Asian tour last month hinted that the Obama administration is rethinking its policy on Burma, as it is clearly proven that economic sanctions on the military regime have not yielded the desired result.
The first visible signal of a potential reorientation in U.S. policy towards Burma came last week with the rare visit of a U.S. diplomat to Burma's administrative capital of Naypyitaw, where he met with senior members of the junta, including Foreign Minister Nyan Win.
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