Human Rights Ngos
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NGOs as norm-constructors: The human rights activism of Asian NGOs and their role in shaping the regional human rights discourse By Dorottya Atol Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities and Languages University of Western Sydney, 2010 Acknowledgements The writing o f thi s thesis has been a long and winding road for me, which has taught me to work and think independently, and lead me to meet people whose knowledge and dedication has made significant contributions to the human rights cause in Asia and in Australia. All research work is a quest to find and provide knowledge and inspiration, and I was fortunate to receive both from the people who assisted me through this learning process, and for this I would like to express my gratitude : • Firstly to my supervisory panel: Professor Edmund Fung, my principal supervisor, who provided me with constant stimulation to keep me working, and also allowed sufficient space for independent research. I particularly thank him for his assistance in the fina l stages of the work. I am especially grateful to Dr. James Arvanitakis, who only became one of my co-supervisors a bit more than a year ago, but since then has assisted me persistently with his comments, his gentle but very constructive criticism, and gave important assistance in editing. However, more than anything, his positive attitude gave me inspiration to press on during the more difficult periods. I would also like to thank Dr. David Walton, my second co-supervisor. • To the fantastic human rights activists, lawyers, journalists who – as the staff of Asian NGOs – constitute the heart and soul of a regional human rights movement, which is the major subject of this research. Their relentless struggle for the improvement o f human rights in As ia, sometimes even at the risk of their own wellbeing, has been an enormous inspiration for my work. It was an honour to be able to observe their daily work, even for a short period of time. I owe special gratitude to Mr. Basil Fernando, the Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), firstly, for his hospitality and for providing me with the unique opportunity to gain an insight into the operations of the AHRC; and additionally for the knowledge and dedication he conveyed through the two illuminating interviews I conducted with him. I would also like to thank Mr. Bijo Francis and Mr. Michael Anthony for giving me a detailed account of their amazing work. Also, I would like to thank the extended crew of the AHRC, Dr. Baseer Naveed, Philip Setunga, Nicholas Cheesman, Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi and all the others for their support and their kindness. Additionally, I would like to express my app rec ia tio n to R a vi Na ir, the Executive Director of the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre, and to Ram Narayan K umar from the South Asian Forum for Human Rights, for the insight and information they provided in the interviews. • To my parents, my extended family and all my friends, who provided me with unwavering support from close and afar. I am very grateful for everything they have done fo r me. • And to Daniel Thompson, a very special friend who has dedicated enormous efforts to help me with writing and editing up to the last minutes, and provided me not only with inspiring ideas and academic assistance, but also picked me up whenever I felt the weight of the ta sk. Without his suppor t I would not have been able to walk to the end of this road. Generally, I would like to convey my gratitude to everyone else that helped me and stood by me along the way. Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials pr eviously p ublished or written by a nother person, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contrib ution made to the research by ot hers is acknowledged in the thesis. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any ot her institution. Signed ………………………………… Table of Contents List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................v List of Acronyms............................................................................................................................vi Abstrac t ..........................................................................................................................................ix Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 The focus and aims of the thesis................................................................................................................................................ 5 Literature review and background............................................................................................................................................. 7 The “Asian values debate” ............................................................................................................................................. 7 ASEAN and human rights .............................................................................................................................................. 12 Non-governmental organisations (NGOs).................................................................................................................. 17 Theories of interest to this thesis.................................................................................................................................. 20 The significance of the thesis ................................................................................................................................................... 23 The Research Methodology...................................................................................................................................................... 25 Clarification of certain concepts applied in the thesis ............................................................................................. 30 Limitations of the thesis ............................................................................................................................................................ 32 Structure of the thesis ................................................................................................................................................................ 33 Cha pter 1 − Theoretical fra me wo rk ...........................................................................................35 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................. 35 Regionalism: A growing trend................................................................................................................................................. 36 Human rights regionalism......................................................................................................................................................... 37 Theories of regionalism............................................................................................................................................................. 45 Old theories and new regionalism ............................................................................................................................... 45 The normative aspects of regionalism......................................................................................................................... 47 Social constructivism and the construction of regionalism ..................................................................................... 49 i Transnational advocacy networks and their normative activism ........................................................................... 55 The alternative regionalism of human rights NGOs................................................................................................. 59 Gauging the impact of NGOs’ regional activism ...................................................................................................... 62 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................................... 65 Cha pter 2 − Human Rights NGOs ..............................................................................................67 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................. 67 How could NGOs be defined? ................................................................................................................................................. 68 The growing significance of NGO activism ............................................................................................................... 70 Human rights NGOs: The “curious grapevine” of human rights ....................................................................................... 74 Categorisation of human rights NGOs ....................................................................................................................... 75 Contrasting but not controversial: Distinctive