Ripe for Rights?: Problems and Prospects for a Human Rights Regime in East Asia

Abstract

For much of the twentieth century the Asian region was relatively devoid of indigenous international institutions. Divided first by imperialism and then by the pressures of the cold war, there were relatively few successful efforts—with a handful of exceptions such as ASEAN—to create institutional structures for coordinating state policies in Asia. Since the end of the cold war, however, international institutions in the Asia Pacific region have grown at an explosive rate. For the most part, institution building has focused on such economic issues. However, in the classic “spill-over” pattern familiar to students of regional integration in other parts of the world, institution-building activity in Asia has spread to other issue areas as well, including the environment, monetary policy, military confidence building, migration, law-enforcement, and counter terrorism.¹ Spurred on by the collective challenges posed by the Asia financial crisis and the war on terror, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, with China and Japan in the lead, have become active and vital participants in shaping their environment through a formidable array of institution-building initiatives.