THE CHALLENGES OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN ASEAN
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Abstract
The aim of the study is to examine the challenges facing human rights defenders in protection of human rights in both national and regional levels of ASEAN. The study showed that the human rights defenders were in danger because of harassment, intimidation and lawsuits to stop their activities on behalf of others. It was the outcome of misconceptions and false beliefs about human rights in each ASEAN member states that tended to take values of economic growth and national security more than the ones of human rights. Since human rights defenders could not rely on the government to protect their rights because in some cases the government itself was the one who stood in the opposite side of human rights defenders. Then, the hope of human rights defenders have gone up to the international level. However, there are some challenges as well, especially in a case of the regional organization (ASEAN). The first challenge is that the ASEAN mechanism on human rights aims to promote more than protect human rights. The second one is the weakness of ASEAN human rights institutions.
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