Abstract

From the still unresolved Rohingya crisis in 2015 the human rights situation in Myanmar has continued to deteriorate. The military coup in early 2021 has led to an ongoing civil war with massive violence against civilian populations perpetrated by the Myanmar military and security forces. How has the situation in Myanmar impacted ASEAN and what does ASEAN’s response tell us both about the capacity of ASEAN to respond to humanitarian crises and to make good upon the human rights and rule of law principles enshrined in the ASEAN Charter? While ASEAN has taken unprecedented steps in excluding Myanmar from the ASEAN Summit, that, as well as other responses have had little if any impact. The Myanmar crisis, as well as the South China Sea and the environmental crisis on the lower Mekong, have highlighted the deep divisions in ASEAN that outside powers seek to exploit. Can ASEAN afford not to take stronger measures in regard to Myanmar and what consequences would such measures have?

About the Speaker

David Cohen is the founding director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University and previously the founding director of the War Crimes Studies Center at UC Berkeley, where he taught for more than 30 years before moving to Stanford as the WSD Handa Professor in Human Rights and International Justice, Professor of Classics, and Professor in Environmental and Behavioral Sciences.

Over the past 2 decades, Cohen has designed and led trial monitoring, rule of law, judicial training, legal education, transitional justice and human rights projects and programs in Indonesia, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, India, Philippines, Singapore, and Cambodia. In the last 15 years, his work has focused primarily on Southeast Asia, both at the national and ASEAN levels. Together with the Indonesian Institute for an Independent Judiciary, he co-directs ongoing research projects and judicial training programs on the rule of law, human rights, and international criminal law with the Supreme Court, the Attorney General’s Office, the National Human Rights Commission, and other agencies in Indonesia.

In Cambodia, he has led community outreach, trial monitoring, and judicial training projects with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (ECCC) since 2006. He has also engaged with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission and other ASEAN bodies on human trafficking, modern day slavery, rule of law, and related issues. He currently assists the ASEAN Council of Supreme Court Chief Justices (CACJ) in developing ASEAN judicial training programs. He has published books, articles and reports on a wide range of legal history, human rights, international criminal law, and transitional justice issues.