ABSTRACT
For many years, the government of Myanmar, a majority-Buddhist country, has systematically repressed the country’s Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic, religious and linguistic minority residing primarily in Rakhine State on Myanmar’s western coast. ASEAN’s traditional principles of sovereignty, non-interference and consensus decision-making, enshrined in the ASEAN Charter and numerous other agreements and declarations, explain, if they do not justify, the organisation’s handling of the Rohingya crisis. More constructive engagement by ASEAN in the Rohingya crisis could take several forms. Over the past several decades, ASEAN has asserted its geopolitical centrality in the Asia-Pacific region, and has increased its credibility by rhetorically committing to human rights. There are valid political constraints that preclude a comprehensively more interventionist ASEAN. By reorienting existing mechanisms, ASEAN could feasibly adopt a more forward-leaning and effective approach to upholding human rights, within the bounds of recognised political constraints.
